^*^U 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 7^ 
 
 // 
 
 ^/ 
 
 A 
 
 <S^ J^P ^ A 
 
 :/. 
 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 1.25 
 
 1^ 1^ 
 IIM 
 
 t lis. Ill 2.0 
 
 1.8 
 
 U III 1.6 
 
 .^/ 
 
 /a 
 
 
 ^- 
 
iV 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions 
 
 Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 
 
 1980 
 
Technical Notes / Notes techniques 
 
 The Institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Physical 
 features of this copy which may aiter any of the 
 images in the reproduction are checked below. 
 
 L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Certains 
 difauts susceptibles de nuire d la quality de la 
 reproduction sent noti^ ci-dessous. 
 
 
 D 
 
 Coloured covers/ 
 Couvertures de couleur 
 
 Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartes gdographiques en couleur 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 Coloured pages/ 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 Coloured plates/ 
 Planches en couleur 
 
 D 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 Pages d6color6es, tachet^es ou piqudes 
 
 
 
 Show through/ 
 Transparence 
 
 D 
 
 Tight binding (may cause shadows or 
 distortion along interior margin)/ 
 Reliure serrd (peut causer de I'ombre ou 
 de la distortion le long de la marge 
 int^rieuie) 
 
 V 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommagdes 
 
 D 
 
 Additional comments/ 
 Commentaires suppldmentaires 
 
 Bibliographic Notes / Notes bibliographiques 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition disponible 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Reli6 avec d'autres documents 
 
 □ 
 
 Pagination incorrect/ 
 Erreurs de pagination 
 
 Pages missing/ 
 Des pages manquent 
 
 D 
 
 Cover title missing/ 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 n 
 
 Maps missing/ 
 
 Des cartes gdographiques manquent 
 
 D 
 
 Plates missing/ 
 
 Des planches manquent 
 
 n 
 
 Additional comments/ 
 Commentaires suppldmentaires 
 
The images appearing here are the best quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and in iteeping with the 
 filming contract specifications. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall 
 contain the symbol — ► (meaning CONTINUED"), 
 or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever 
 applies. 
 
 The original copy was borrowed from, and 
 filmed with, the kind consent of the following 
 institution: 
 
 National Library of Canada 
 
 Maps or plates too large to be entirely included 
 in one exposure are filmed beginning in the 
 upper left hand corner, left to right and top to 
 bottom, as many frames as required. The 
 following diagrams illustrate the method: 
 
 Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le 
 p^us grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et 
 de la nettet6 de I'exemplaire film6, ot en 
 conformity avec les conditions du contrat de 
 filmagt). 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur la der- 
 nidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: 
 lo symbole — •► signifie "A SUIVRE". le symbole 
 V signifie "FIN". 
 
 L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grdce d la 
 g6n6rosit6 de l'6tablissement prdteur 
 suivant : 
 
 Bibliothdque nationale du Canada 
 
 Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre 
 reproduites en un seul cliche sont filmdes d 
 partir de I'angle supdrieure gauche, de gauche d 
 droite et de haut en bas. en prenant le nombre 
 d'images ndcessaire. Le diagramme suivant 
 illustre la mdthode : 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 < ■ . * 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
.K-.''V*f?'''*?''y 
 
 
 ^^^r^^^ 
 
 ^^^7^^^ 
 
 II:, 
 
 'I 
 
 
 S E R MO N 
 
 
 AND 
 
 LECTURE 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 ST. JAMES STREET CHURCH, and the JAMES FERRTER HALL, 
 
 THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE, 
 
 DURING THE SESSION OF THE 
 
 BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT MONTREAL, 
 
 AUGUST, 1884, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. W. H. DALLINGER, LL.D„ F.R.S., F.LS., 
 
 Pres. R.M.S. Governor of Wesley College, 
 Sheffield. 
 
 GAZETTE PRINTING COMPANY. 
 1884. 
 
 "X 
 
 
'1 
 
 

 / 
 
 10- 
 
 SERMON 
 
 A/rhh ^ 
 
 AND 
 
 LECTURE 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 ST. JAMES STREET CHURCH, and the JAMES FERRIER HALL, 
 
 THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE, 
 
 DURING THE SESSION OF THE 
 
 BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT MONTREAL, 
 
 AUGUST, 1884, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. W. H. DALLINGER, LLD„ F.R.S., F.L.S., 
 
 Pres. R.M.S. Governor of Wesley College, 
 Sheffield. 
 
 GAZETTE PRINTING COMPANY, 
 
 1884. 
 
2. 
 3. 
 
 4. 
 
 1. 
 
 dif 
 lin 
 an 
 th{ 
 ma 
 the 
 sid 
 a o 
 blei 
 
THB PROBABILITY OF A DIVINE MORAL MANIFESTA- 
 TION ON MAN'S BEHALF CONSIDERED 
 IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT 
 SCIENCE. 
 
 I select as preliminary the following passages from the 
 New Testament, viz. : — 
 
 1. Jno. XIII, 8-9. — Philip saith unto Him, Lord shew us the Father and 
 
 it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto Him, Have I been so long time 
 with you and dost thou not know me Philip ! He that hath seen 
 me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou then show us the 
 Father ? 
 
 2. Jno. X, 29. — I and my Father are One 
 
 3. Jno. II, 10. — I came that they may have life and may have it abun- 
 
 dantly. 
 
 4. Jno. XVIII, 36. — My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom 
 
 were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should 
 not be delivered to the Jews : but now is my Kingdom not from 
 hence. 
 
 1. Cor. XV, 25. — So he must reign till he hath put all his enemies under 
 his feet. 
 
 These passages are not chosen as the basis or text of a 
 discourse, but are taken as expressive indices of the main 
 lines for reasoning and thought. I shall not argue from, 
 and for texts, as for foregone conclusions, but I use them 
 that I may discuss without bias the affirmations they 
 make. These passages suggest the broad lines of my 
 theme ; they shall bind me to nothing but the calm con- 
 sideration of the subjects they open. I desire to approach 
 a great moral question, as much in the spirit that enno- 
 bles science, as the nature of subject will permit. Rarely, 
 
in any department of knowledge, are our loftiest move- 
 ments wholly accurate ; our highest attainments, in even 
 physical knowledge, are never unalterably , right. Then 
 we may well be patient with earnest truth-seekers in the 
 department of Psychology and Morals. Truth there, is 
 indeed i>re(;ious beyond all utterance ; and it is our high- 
 est vocation as Christians, — from the very nature of 
 Christian morality — to seek truth, and to receive it, come 
 from whence, or lead to where it may. But in pursuing 
 this quest we must forever remember its nature. It is 
 not a physical enquiry, nor a mathematical enquiry, nor a 
 problem of numbers. The methofh of science have no appli- 
 cation to it, although the spirit of science has, profoundly. 
 And, if m a s^earch for some visible and rational basis, for 
 the most ennobling beliefs of our lives, we can make con- 
 gruous and fair deductions from the deepest truths of 
 science, it becomes our most elevated duty to do so. The 
 Theologian, as such, forfeits all right to the ear of science, 
 when he dares to usurp dominion over its facts, its deduc- 
 tions, or even its hypotheses. But, on the other hand, 
 science may fain listen patiently, when, claiming a higher 
 authority than nature for its highest truth, theology 
 yet, takes the deepest facts of science and, surrendering 
 supremely to their truth, still deduces coincidence and 
 support from them, with, and for, the highest beliefs held 
 by our moral nature. It is on this line I enter upon, and 
 shall prosecute, my enquiry. These scriptural passages 
 then, suggest the Divine character, the lofty spiritual 
 purpose, and the permanent object of Christ's advent to 
 man. Without question, the appearance of Christ in 
 human history has proved itself the advent of a new 
 moral power, a new formative factor for the higher spiri- 
 tual development of man. Was this interjection of a new 
 energy into the moral movement of the human race, a 
 sequence of the past, or a miracle for the ennoblement of 
 the future ? Philisophically Christ is without doubt a 
 
In 
 
 phenomenon. History is absolutely at fault in seeking to 
 explain His appearance, the principles of His life and 
 teaching, and the tremendous power projected into every 
 succeeding age, following upon His igiijmino.:^ death. 
 If the philosophy of history has no solution, is miracle — 
 a great moral interposition for great moral ends — even 
 conceivable ? We know that many deep, earnest truth- 
 loving minds, masters of science, and others, declare, 
 apparently by deduction, that any miraculous interposi- 
 tion in the sequences of Nature is simply inconceivable ; 
 in fact impossible. But it must ever be remembered that 
 this is not an affirmation that there can be no miracle ; it 
 merely declares that miracle does not happen, and so far 
 as our observation and knowledge of it go, could not 
 happen. All that we know of Nature, shows, that all the 
 phenomena that do present themselves, or so far as we can 
 see, that ever have presented themselves, are sequences in 
 obedience to rigid law. An interrupticn of this at any 
 point, it is urged, cannot be thought. But in all fairness 
 note how much there is of physical law and mental action 
 that we do not know. It is negation only I know, but we 
 have learned that even negations should at times incite 
 our modesty. But to those who insist on the existence of 
 a personal Creator, this inability on his part to act beyond 
 the prescriptive borders of known law has no actual men- 
 tal standing place. The fact is admitted — all the pheno- 
 mena of the universe is a chain of sequences ; but granted 
 a Divine Creator as the Power that produced the Cosmos, 
 it is asked, is it conceivable that he should so order, and 
 cause, the laws of phenomena, that he could never more 
 alter them V Can it be thought, that, if there were an 
 Almighty Creator, He, by the very act of creating, would 
 surrender His almightiness ? Is it thinkable that He 
 planted the crown of infinite sovereignty on the brow of 
 matter and force by the act of creation, and forever-more 
 became a slpve — a sheer subject of His own laws ? — im- 
 
prisoned within the phenomena he has produced ? That 
 it is difficult — almost infinitely difficult — to explain how 
 a miracle could be wrought in the physical universe as 
 we know it, without a disloc9,tion of the cosmos, is plain 
 to all who think. Yet it is a difficulty of equal magni- 
 tude to any Theist to think that he should have abdicated 
 his omnipotence by the omnipotent act of creation. 
 
 Now, what I shall endeavour to show is that certain 
 scientific facts, involved in the modern hypothesis of the 
 genesis of the earth and man, give the highest presump- 
 tive probability to the divine advent of Christ as a moral 
 uplifter of man. To pursue the argument we must follow 
 science without fear or carping. At the outset the mo- 
 mentous question meets us " Is there a God ?" a question 
 which may have almost infinitely diverse meanings. We 
 cannot at all fairly discuss it, and, if deductive evidence 
 be required, I doubt if it can be given. The question 
 eludes a demonstrative answer. But moral certainty, in 
 its own domain, may be as absolute as the evidence of 
 measurement, or weight, or quantative analysis, where 
 thei/ apply. I can employ to-day but one chain of argu- 
 ment out of hundreds, and that but brief and simple — 
 look at it for a moment. The intelligence of man is 
 the topF}ost wonder of all that we know ; conscious and 
 thinking man is, in the midst of mysteries, himself the 
 mystery that is deepest. But, nevertheless, man can 
 investigate and interpret the phenomena of nature. It is 
 his intellect .nlone that does this. It is in this that man 
 infinitely transcends the brute. The tender ripple of the 
 ruddy dawn upon the margin of the eastern sky, and -the 
 opulent interchange of gorgeous hues that glorify the 
 WEST as the great sun goes down, awake no thrill — arouse 
 no quiet joy — no suggestion of the infinite in the mental 
 nature of the brute. Visually, these things are to man 
 and beast alike ; but to the higher mind of man, the 
 colour and the form and the spatial relations— image as 
 
it were the thought that lies behind creation, and kindle 
 conceptions of sublimity and beauty. To illustrate this, 
 remember there is no colour in the object that under the 
 influence of light excites it ; the perception of colour is in 
 the organ that perceives — it is a special affection of the 
 nerve and brain. So the sense of infinity in the arch of 
 heaven ; of beauty in the undulating earth, of majesty in 
 alp and sea, and of repose in summer wood and meadow, 
 are not in the objects ; they are in the synthetic power 
 of the spirit who sees. The mind — the soul — in man, is 
 responsive to, and recipient of, the thought that lies be- 
 } ind matter and space, and which matter and space can 
 only be made to embody by such an act of mind. There 
 is no emotion evoked by nature's masses and heights and 
 forms and colours and spatial extensions, in the mind of 
 the ox. The same pictu'^ "^ upon the retina of the 
 
 horse or the ape, or the beas jj, as is imaged on the retina 
 of man ; colour, height and distance are presented to each, 
 but they kindle no similar mental state. It is not the 
 retinal picture, — the brain impression, that makes the sub- 
 limity the beauty, the sense of awful power and greatness 
 in the phenomena of nature ; it is the mind which perceives. 
 Even to understand nature, to become in any sense per- 
 cipient of its meaning and relations, requires a quick and 
 strong intelligence. Then can it be, that that which re- 
 quires mind to understand it, and to discover in any sense, 
 its beauty and grandeur, did not require mind to produce 
 it ? The profoundest mathematical knowledge and insight 
 is required to interpret and express the related, but in- 
 tensely complex movements of the moon about the earth 
 and le sun. Then, can we conclude that it required no 
 mind to devise these movements and adjust the bodies that 
 were so to move ? We stand amid the heather in a sum- 
 mer morning, and perceive without effort the prismatic 
 beauty radiant in dew drop. That is an eminent act of 
 mind. But to apply ourselves to the study of it until we 
 
8 
 
 see why the dew-drop bends and opens out the light, caus- 
 ing it to untwist its clustered radiance of hue — to invent 
 means of doing all this iviihout the dew-drop — to cause the 
 sun to send his shafts of light through the cunningly 
 devised prism — to study the gorgeous spectrum that 
 results ; and by that means, to mount transcendently 
 above the facts of eaHhly chemistry and physics, to the 
 facts of the chemistry and physics of the sun and stars ; 
 that is surely one of the grandest acts of mind effected by 
 man. But it has called forth all the forces of human intel- 
 lect to discover — to understand — to perceive all these sub- 
 lime relations of light to the physics and chemistry of the 
 universe, the disclosure of the physical condition of suns 
 and stars. Can it be conceived that they could have been 
 devised, brought about and established in heaven, with- 
 out mind ? without thought ? without cause ? If it be 
 mind alone that can perceive the order and beauty of earth 
 and heaven as established, could it be anything less than 
 mind, that conceived and produced all this ? Verily this 
 is an inevitable sequence in the normal human intellect 
 —it is impossible not to think it. True, there is a conspi- 
 cuous philosophy — po^v^erful and impressive — that seeks 
 to account for all, including the mind of man, by sheer 
 matter and motion. But Herbert Spencer, its great author, 
 is compelled, with all students of modern science, to start 
 with a beginning. But in the beginning what ? The 
 homogeneous becomes heterogeneous, that is the formula ! 
 Matter is assumed as existing as a limited, but still mea- 
 sureless mass of unified inertness. The homogeniety is 
 perfect and there are no external influences, and yet, lo ! 
 the homogeneous becomes suddenly heterogeneous ! and 
 that is the beginning ! Now, perfect homogeniety is in- 
 finite stability ; more than once Spencer admits this, and 
 there is nothing outside the homogeneous that can affect 
 it ; this is the actual assumption. Yet somehow — the 
 perfectly homogenous is not so — it is in unstable equili- 
 
9 
 
 brium — its equilibrium breaks — and that is *' the begin- 
 ning," — the first movement m the great wave of genesis 
 that has reached its highest point in the heavens, the earth, 
 and man ! But does this satisfy us ? Surely not. The ori- 
 gin and the nature of matter and force I believe may never 
 be known. But what are their relations ? Do not let us 
 deceive ourselves by supposing that matter and force are 
 inseparable. Force is not a necessary property of matter. 
 The two are not inalienable. Matter may be complete 
 without force. A bar of iron is hot ; it is possessed of the 
 force or energy of heat. But it can become colder, and 
 colder, until it might reach an absolute zero. But we can 
 only think of it as iron still. Then what is the relation 
 of the force of heat to the iron ? It is simply an affection 
 of matter. The force of heat affects the iron and makes it 
 hot. So with all force or energy, it is not a property in 
 matter, but an affection of it. Then if matter, homo- 
 geneous or otherwise, is to be directed into rhythmic 
 order, such as we see in this universe, is it conceivable 
 that it could be done by any other influence than that 
 which we can only think of as beyond, above, and out- 
 side matter — in short — competent mind? There is a 
 Minnie Rifle : there is a bullet ; there is some powder. 
 The powder has potential energy ; the bullet has weight ; 
 the rifle has adaptation. Leave them alone, let no direct- 
 ing agent touch them, and what will happen ? Nothing 
 — should they remain there forever. But put the powder 
 with the bullet in the tube; complete the charge and 
 direct the needful action, and in an instant you have 
 evoked the spark — set free the energy within the powder, 
 and the bullet flies forth with murderous power. There 
 was force, there was matter ; but they could do nothing 
 even to eternity, until the force was intelligently directed 
 to affect the matter. Then look at a measureless expanse 
 of homogeneous matter ; it is infinitely inert. It cannot 
 alter itself; there is, we are told, nothing outside itself to 
 
10 
 
 N 
 
 alter it. Yet lo ! it alters ! " In the beginning" it throbs 
 and pulpates itself into differences — it begins to segregate 
 and change and take infinite varieties of form and pro- 
 perty—and it goes on until it has produced all that we 
 see and are conscious of ! — the infinite of heaven and the 
 universe of earth. The homogeneous, in fact, causes the 
 heterogeneous. Is it not hard indeed to think this Y Is 
 it in fact thinkable V To the majority surely no. No 
 doubt force operated on and affected matter in the first 
 throb that stirred the stillness of the beginning ; but what 
 directed the force ? There must be a direct relation be- 
 tween the first thrill of force that stirred the matter of the 
 universe, and the movement of a planet, or the formation 
 of a lily, or the throat of a nightingale, and the love of a 
 human mother. Then if the force affecting matter at the 
 beginning were not directed, by what to us is thought of 
 as infinite mental wisdom, how did these issues arise ? 
 There appears to most men at least no answer. God, as 
 the great mental cause, is the only solution of the problem. 
 But some will ask, is even that a solution ? Why should 
 Grod produce and not be Himself produced. If God made 
 all things — if there must be a cause of all that we see — 
 then must not God be caused ? And who caused Him ? 
 That question is the primus amongst paradoxes. Study 
 it. What is it that the human intellect is forever sub- 
 jecting to analysis and experiment ? Finite phenomena. 
 Finite facts, Conc^erning these, what is the universal 
 inference of man — savage and civilized — and with no 
 semblance of an exception ? Simply that every finite 
 phenomena, every finite effect, must have had a cause, 
 must have originated. This is a deduction which we can 
 only make concerning the limited — the finite. Only that 
 which has limits can be the subject of experiment and 
 research. We cannot experiment on the infinite. Our 
 deduction is, that whatever had a beginning must have 
 had a cause. But by what right do we carry this deduc- 
 
11 
 
 Ir 
 |e 
 
 tion over to the infinite ? Because I kncnv that the finite 
 on which I can experiment must have been caused, have 
 1 any logical right to infer that the infinite on which no 
 experiment can be made, and no experience obtained must 
 have had a cause also '? Surely not ; a competent cause of 
 all things is a final necessity of mind ; and is also of 
 necessity inscrutable. 'Truly it is no explanation of how 
 anything arose or was caused, to conclude from all that 
 we see that their cause was infinite mind. This does not 
 explain the mode of creative evolution. The mystery is as 
 great as ever. But the mind is at rest in an infinite cause. 
 The origin of matter none can ever know. We cannot 
 clearly think of it as eternally existing ; and we cannot 
 conceive how even limitless power could have called it 
 into existence from nothing. But we are conscious that 
 matter exists, and we know its various forms by their 
 properties. Extension, impenetrability, and figure belong 
 to it everywhere. Now we have the strongest and clear- 
 est modern evidence, that all forms of matter, are, in 
 ultimate structure, similarly composed. They are made 
 up of inconceivably minute and indestructible par- 
 ticles which, because they cannot be conceived of as 
 admitting of further mechanical division, are called atoms- 
 All matter is ultimately atomic. But also, various forms 
 of matter have various properties. Hydrogen is light, 
 and inflammable. Carbonic acid is heavy and adverse to 
 combustion. Gold is malleable ; glass is transparent and 
 brittle. But matter has these and all other differing pro- 
 perties and qualities, because the ultimate atoms belonging 
 to each is differently endowed. Chlorine is different in 
 properties from phosphorous, because the atoms of 
 chlorine are differently endowed — as atoms, possessed of 
 wholly different properties — from those of phosphorus. 
 Then it is to the endowment of the atoms that we must 
 look for the properties of the various forms of matter. 
 Now how did these atoms become endowed with or pos- 
 
12 
 
 1 
 
 sessed of th Ar various properties. Either these properties 
 must have been acquired by accident in a measureless 
 past, or else they must have been imparted to the 
 atoms by competent wisdom and power. If we 
 may take so strong and deep a mind as Clark Max- 
 well for our guide, the highest point made by modern 
 mathematics and philosophy is, thad; the properties of the 
 atoms could never have been acquired. With force (un- 
 directed by mind) for one factor, and unlimited time for 
 another, we yet, could never even conceive, that the atoms 
 could have slowly acquired their properties. The splendour 
 of the universe is its stability. Who doubts the unchang- 
 ing certainty of the laws of heaven and earth ? The pro- 
 perties of matter cannot alter. The sublimity of the material 
 universe, in its farthest extension and its nearest area ; in 
 its mightiest constellation and its minutest mote, is that 
 the power that produced it — commanded and it stood fast. 
 There can be no change. In living things there is genera- 
 tion, variation, destruction. But in ultimate atoms there 
 is no generation. No new atom is ever produced ; and no 
 single atom can change or perish or disappear. Then, there 
 can be no atomic evolution. Atoms cannot change and 
 acquire new properties. They do not now — as the most 
 accurate science affirms — and they never could have done 
 in all the past. If atoms had ever been without perma- 
 nence of property, matter of all forms would have been 
 unstable in quality and relations. There could have been 
 no law, no permanent phenomena. Instead of a Cosmos 
 Time would have reigned over chaos. No property in any 
 form of matter could have been unaffected by change. 
 Properties acquired a thousand millenniums since, could 
 have no existence now; and there could have been no 
 certainty but the certainty of chaos, and no onward 
 rhythmic movement from the higher to the lower — from 
 the simple to the complex — which is the indispensible 
 necessity of modern thought and science. The strongest 
 
 ^ 
 
13 
 
 mathematical mind of our century affirms that if the atoms 
 had not possessed, at the beginning, all the properties they 
 now possess, nothing now existing could be permanent, 
 and nothing in the universe could be as it now is. From 
 the first, then, the atoms must have been possessed of their 
 properties. And what is that but an affirmation that the 
 atoms were — to empi >y human language — made — endowed 
 by creative power and wisdom with their forms and 
 properties. The beginning, then, of this finite universe; 
 was when creative power wrought the atoms, all the 
 properties of all the matter that has built up heaven and 
 earth, lay folded up in the created atoms. But with such 
 atoms, so endowed, and by such a Power, there is no rea- 
 son within the horizon of man's mind, to prevent us from 
 believing that with time and law these atoms, by their 
 inconceivable interactions and relations, could not be 
 caused to evolve into the splendid majesty of heaven, and 
 the beauty of earth. We can attach no more definite idea 
 to tlie conception of creation by fiat, whatever that may 
 mean, than we can to the idea of majestic and slow 
 advance by evolution guided by law. But mark, the 
 impulse of the beginning was from without. The atoms 
 were wrought by G-od : — i. e. by a competent power — 
 and this is interposition — it is miracle — it is the divine 
 affection of matter from without, to make evolution by 
 law possible. Here, then, is our first irresistible position. 
 Divine, that is, competent action from without, was 
 logically and, in fact, inevitably necessary to construct 
 the atom before evolution was possible. This is the first 
 great miracle. But was this group of atoms, so constructed, 
 competent to evolve into living things ; into the teeming 
 flora and fauna of the world, and ultimately into man ? — 
 The strictest experimental science shall give the answer ; 
 and it is No. The most accurate and most recent research 
 definitely proves that to produce life and living forms 
 other factors were wanting. The atoms of the not-living 
 
14 
 
 i 
 
 world did not contain all the properties of the world as we 
 know it. Lif3 is not the function of any atom, nor is it 
 the property of any combination of atoms, as such, that 
 we know. The properties of that which has life transcend 
 to infinity the properties of everything that is not-living. 
 Life is always the property of a certain highly complex 
 matter. It is called protoplasm. There is no life any- 
 where apart from protoplasm. But we can analyse this 
 compound ; and we know perfectly the elements that make 
 it up. They are common elements of the not-living world 
 — carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and the rest. But 
 we further know, that none of the properties of these, 
 separately or in combination, can give us the least sugges- 
 tion of the properties of the living compound which they 
 make. It is not a property of any of their combinations. 
 Life is a new factor in the universe. No power now 
 acting on earth — the latest science allows — can change 
 what is not living into what lives. Only the living can 
 perpetuate and produce the living. All the powers of 
 chemist'*y and physics are tried in vain. How, then, in 
 the great past did matter, when it had reached the highest ^ 
 pinacle of development as not-living matter, become en- 
 dowed with the powers and properties of life ? Not by 
 discoverable law — for none such exists — not by force for 
 none such is anywhere acting. How then was it wrought ? 
 Surely by the imminent action of a power competent to 
 bring it about. And what is this but a second " interpo- 
 sition," a second " interference," a second miracle in the on- 
 ward movement of evolution ? But having obtained upon 
 the earth by this means, that which was living ; — one or 
 more primordeal masses of life — we ha\^e all that the great 
 hypothesis of Darwin demands. And he suggests no other 
 method of its production. To his profoundly logical mind 
 life could not be accounted for by known and existing 
 law, and it was no part of his mission to account for it. 
 But, granted its existence by a competent cause, is there 
 
 il! 
 
15 
 
 d 
 
 t. 
 :e 
 
 any difficulty in conceiving that, as the atoms might by 
 the action of law roll oat into the splendour of heaven 
 and earth without life; so this livitig matter, endowed 
 with simply infinite powers of multiplication, might be 
 caused by the same power, thiDUgh laws of variation, 
 laws of r'hange of environment, and laws of survival, go 
 on operating, and reaching higher and higher, until even 
 man himself was by this process created " of the dust of 
 the earth." Surely that is conceivable ? But note with 
 care, it could never be man as he is as we now know him. 
 Man is conscious of himself — he can look within all the 
 outer mysteries of his life and see himself — know that he 
 exists apart from all others. Is this conciousness ; this 
 knowledge " It is I " a property or sequence of even living 
 matter ? Verily not. No movement of atoms, no inter- 
 action of molecular properties, can ever pass over into 
 consciousness, or result in the knowledge "It is I." 
 
 Listen to Prof Tyndall. He asks, " What then is the 
 casual connexion, if any, between molecular motions and 
 states of consciousness ? My answei is, he continues, 
 " I do not see the connexion ; nor have I as yet met any 
 
 body who does Does water think or feel 
 
 when it runs into frost ferns upon the window pane ? 
 If not, why should the molecular motion of the brain be 
 yoked to this mysterious companion — consciousness ? " 
 Again, he says, " While accepting fearlessly the facts of 
 materialism, .... I bow my head in the dust before 
 the mystery of mind, which has hitherto defied its own 
 penetrative power, and which may ultimately resolve 
 itself into a demonstrable impossibility of self penetra- 
 tion." And finally, he says, " The passage from the physics 
 of the brain to the corresponding facts of consciousness 
 is inconceivable as a result of mechanics .... The 
 problem of the connection of body and soul is as insoluble 
 in its modem form as it was in pre-scientific ages." 
 
 With equal force Prof. Huxley says : " But when the 
 
utetam 
 
 16 
 
 i. 
 
 ^\ 
 
 i I 
 
 materialists stray beyond the borders of their path, and 
 begin to talk about there being nothing but matter anvi 
 force and necessary laws and .ill the rest of their Grena- 
 diers, \ decline to Mlow them. . . . All our knowledge," 
 he continues, " is a knowledge of states of consciousness ; 
 'matter' and 'force' are, so far as we can know, mere 
 names for certain forms of consciousness." 
 
 Manifestly, thon, if you identify mind and its activities 
 with matter, you annul matter by the act ; in brief, you 
 mentalize what we have hitherto looked upon as matter. 
 The result is that all mental phenomena, beginning in 
 consciousness, and ending in the largest thought, and the 
 grandest moral action, transcends all the properties of 
 matter, and cannot be formulated on any terms of law 
 and force. 
 
 The properties of life may produce a vital machine 
 that can be impelled by hunger and thirst and desire, but 
 never a conscious person — a self-distinguished ego — a con- 
 sciousness, that can realize relations with, but also abso- 
 lute distinction from, every other thing or being in the 
 universe. But more than this, man, as we know him, is 
 a moral being. The majesty of right, the baseness of 
 wrong, are part of his knowledge of himself " I ought," 
 " I ought not," is the woof, of which " I am " ie the web. 
 
 Then, is there one amongst us can believe that all this 
 is an outcome, or a sequence, of atomic structure and 
 properties, or of molecular interactions ? Can any thrill 
 or movement of even living nerve matter be believed to 
 originate and account for all this ? If not, it must have 
 been imparted. Just as the atom had to be omnipo- 
 tently wrought ; just as the living matter had to be 
 made vital by tlie mystery of a new potency in the com- 
 pound that gave rise to its properties ; so this further 
 " intrusion " into the rhythmic flow of evolution, this 
 further miracle to consummate man — tne latest product of 
 the slow majesty of creative evolution, had to be effected. 
 
IT 
 
 Now, bv3 it remembered, I have made no departure from, 
 or expansion of a single fact of science in all this. My 
 inferen(!es have been made along a path of strict scientific 
 deduction: and if these inferences commend themselves 
 it follows that, granted that evolution is the means by 
 which Grod created the earth and man, and all the vast 
 circumference of heaven ; yet these have been direct and 
 palpable interruptions, visible interpositions, miraculous 
 movements upon matter, by an inscruitable power, out- 
 side and above matter, without which matter could never 
 have been what are now see. 
 
 In the production of the original atoms, in the origina- 
 tion of life, and in the engendering of mind and moral 
 sense in man, we see fresh impulses, omnipotent move- 
 ments, miraculous aots, giving higher and higher inertia 
 to ^he splendid dilations and progressions of evolution. 
 But having reached this point why may we not rise still 
 higher? If three great interpositions of a competent 
 power are necessary inferences from our latest and most 
 accurate scientific knowledge, to account for all inclusive 
 evolution from the beginning until now ; why, if need be, 
 may there not be another, and even a vaster miracle ? The 
 world with man in it, we have seen, embosoms a moral 
 element. That element was as much Divinely caused as 
 the shapes and properties of atoms. But it is an element 
 that is not self balanced. It is the loftiest part of man's 
 nature, but it is capable of the deepest degradation. Sin 
 is the transgression of the law of conscience, even where 
 that is a law unto itself, and is guided by no higher. 
 Diviner Code. But Sin is co-extensive with man, in every 
 age, and every area. We need not try to explain its origin, 
 enough that we are all agreed that it is there. It involves 
 man by his own action in pain sorrow and unrest, and 
 blights him with conscious, as well as visible, degrada- 
 tion. Now if an Inscrutable Power whom we call God, 
 would move at the beginning to create atoms, if he would 
 2 
 
I , 
 
 18 
 
 give new and vaster impulses to evolution by qui«;k- 
 ening the not-living into the living, and if he would once 
 more intervene to breathe into man's evolved physical 
 nature the living soul ; need any philosophy be averse to 
 see in Christ, God stepping in once more in a miracle 
 Divine above all others to ennoble and bring to its pro- 
 per aliitude the moral nature of man ? Should it surprise 
 us, if in a Avorld of jihysical life, we find all needful arran- 
 gements to support, adapt and improve it, that we find 
 in the higher moral world, special means provided for 
 its uplifiing in truth, and purity and freedom ? Then 
 is not this what Christ is ? is not that otherwise inex- 
 plicable moral factor in history thus explained? His 
 l)urpose was to disclose Cxod — to show us The Father. 
 But not on the side of his awful attributes ; only on 
 the side of his moral splendour — his character. It was 
 not Grod's infinitude he came to reveal ; the vast arch 
 of heaven, the awful abysses of space lit up with con- 
 stellations and galaxies, and streams of suns could do 
 that infinitely better. It was not God's wisdom and 
 power he sought to disclose, the dancing atom, the flying 
 bird, the rolling planet, the forces of heaven and earth, 
 and the rhythm of each with all had revealed, and would 
 yet further reveal that. Nature is transparent to the 
 glory and beauty of the mental light and power of God. 
 But in all the star-lit heavens, in all the beauty and 
 strength of the sunset and the sea, there is no moral 
 radiance. Earth and heaven are opaque to the resplendent 
 light of character. A star can speak of mind, but not of 
 morals ; a solar system may tell of mental strength and 
 greatness, but can utter no syllable of moral purity. A 
 person alone can be moral. It is not, and cannot be, an 
 attribute of things ; and a person only can give a moral 
 revelation. Hence Christ, a spotless human person, 
 becomes to man a revealer of otherwise unsearchable 
 divine moral splendours. He and His Father were one. In 
 
 
 I' 
 
19 
 
 ying 
 3arth, , 
 vrould 
 
 » the 
 
 God. 
 and 
 moral 
 ndent 
 
 ot of 
 and 
 (y. A 
 be, an 
 
 moral 
 )erson, 
 
 jhable 
 be. lu 
 
 their thirst for a vision of God in ghastly and unutter- 
 able terrors men asked Christ to show them the Father. 
 His answer was sublime : " They that have seen me have 
 seen the Father also." His moral attitude, His spiritual 
 character, His reality, His inflexible adhesion to truth, His 
 yearning pity and love for man, these were the unseen 
 Father's character shining through His son. He taught 
 that the Infinite Father was a spirit — a righteous spirit — 
 no^ God because He was omnipotent, but God because he 
 wt good; and all this great Father's nature was love. It 
 was to initiate a moral kingdom of God that Christ had 
 come. God's mental dominion as a power was absolute 
 through all the domain of being. But in the fullness of 
 time to establish God's moral dominion Christ came. To 
 give imperishable permanence to right, to goodness, and 
 to truth, Christ came, affirming " My kingdom is not of 
 this world," and therefore, once inaugurated, this king- 
 dom should endure forever." This declares the ultimate 
 victory of right ; the final enthronement of goodness and 
 freedom, and truth. It is the proclamation of a principle 
 — of what must be It is not a revelation of what shall 
 be because God chooses it — it is not omnipotent elec- 
 tion — it is the invisible Father disclosing to man 
 the very basis on which rests his being as Eternal 
 Godhead. God's mind is sovereign and supreme in mat- 
 ter and its laws : God's heart — his character — shall be 
 supreme in the dominion of moral life. Hence Christ 
 was a king, and for God He established on earth an 
 eternal kingdom. But His dominion was alone the 
 spirit, and the loyalty he sought was alone the obedi- 
 ence of love. To all who call him King and Mas- 
 ter, to all w^ho come under the influence of the lonely 
 grandeur of His life and the unostentatious sublimity of 
 His death ; in short, to all who feel the power of His char- 
 acter — as an unseen and Divine friendship, — he becomes 
 indeed the way to the Father, and lifts us into the noblest 
 
i/ftr 
 
 20 
 
 ii:l 
 
 ' ! 
 
 phases of a Divine Sonship. In all this I have uttered no 
 theological shibboleth — no sectarian note. 1 have dealt 
 with a great question bound up with the dearest hopes of 
 most of us and intimately associated with the welfare of 
 the world. I have relied, not on dogma, or even creed; 
 but on what I am fain to think reasonable deductions from 
 irresistible scientific facts. If a ray of helpful light shall 
 have entered any mind as the result of our study, if any 
 shall have been helped to see that there is no higher 
 improbability of Divine interposition in the moral than 
 in the physical, my fullest purpose will have been 
 accomplished. 
 
 Mill 
 
 *■■ 
 
 ■--H--'. 
 
PBa. VIII., V. 1-3-4.— O Lord, how oxoellent is Thy name in all the earth, 
 who liaat set Thy K'lory above tho heavens • * * 
 
 Wiien I consider Thy heavens, the work of Tliy tingors, the moon, 
 and the stars, which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou 
 art mindful of him ? or the Son of Man tliat Thou visit<wt him ? 
 
 /V"e will not venture to determine the period iu the his- 
 tory of David, when this lofty poem was composed. It 
 is at least redolent of memories of a shopherd of life, and 
 the unutterable calm of an eastern midnight, when " all 
 the stars shine, and the immeasurable heavens break open 
 to their highest," and in this lies the nucleus of its 
 grandeur. In the opening sentence of the Psalm, there 
 is a grammatical difficulty, it is contained in the expression 
 " who hast set Thy glory above the heavens." But the 
 authorized version has evidently caught the Spirit of the 
 profound est analysis. The Seventy render it more gorge- 
 ous : " For Thy magnifience is exalted above the heavens" — 
 but in both versions the power of the poet's insight is pre- 
 served, and presented ; which is that there is a glory in God 
 loo high for expression in matter : the essential sublimi- 
 ties of His Nature are above the heavens. The heaven of 
 heavens cannot contain Him. Few were ever interpene- 
 trated with a consciousness of the greatness of Nature 
 more deeply than David. But to-day our insight is 
 immeasurably greater. The vastness, the beauty, the 
 overwhelming majesty of creation opened to modern 
 thought, defies competent expression ; in the direction of 
 vastness alone how sublime is it ! Unnumbered worlds in 
 tireless motion ; a motion so beautiful that it is purest 
 music : — not to the ear, but to the soul. Suns, carrying their 
 dependent orbs with awful swiftness through untravelled 
 space; and isolated Universes of suns steered together 
 
I 
 
 22 
 
 : 
 
 through uncharted solitudes. Firmament ^^^ firmament 
 of star suns, and out on the fringe of the v^ery infinite, 
 Nebulae beyond Nebulae curdling amain into new orbs, on 
 the dilating verge these are but the faintest outlines, of 
 but a portion, of that unspoken greatness which arrests 
 and kindles intellect to-day Then is not all this, in the 
 sweep of its vastness, and the spendour of its detail, a fit 
 portraiture of the Infinite God Himself? Has even He 
 any splendours which it cannot utter ? Without ques- 
 tion the Universe as known to-day compels the deduction, 
 that whenever or however it arose, it had its origin in a 
 POWER infinite in capacity and extending through all 
 extent. To the most atheous Science, the universe pro- 
 claims the presence of such power. But does the creation 
 that proclaims His presence, in the loftiest sense, proclaim 
 his character, pronounce the measureless sublimities of 
 his mind ? Do the grandeur of heaven and the beauty 
 of earth tell us all we long to know of their awful cause ? 
 Perhaps the details of created nature — carefully and broadly 
 studied — might lead us haltingly up to the conviction 
 that He was an Intellectual Unity. Perhaps to some mind he 
 might be thought of as a Person ; but created and evolved 
 nature could do no more. The universe cannot of itself re- 
 veal the glory of its Author. Only the pale shadow of 
 Grod's highest beauty flits among the stars. Lurainoub as 
 they are, they need a higher light to make them indubi- 
 tably declare the intellectual unity and grandeur of their 
 source. But there is a glory of God that is higher than 
 intellect ; and it is the moral splendour of His being. 
 The attributes of the Spirit cannot be displayed in 
 even the rainbow tints of sense. The subtleties of moral 
 beauty, matter has no power to utter. God's presence is 
 expressed in nature ; but not His character. The grandeur 
 of His mind is there, but not unequivocally the beauties of 
 His Heart. It is a truth forever profound, " His magni- 
 ficence is exalted above the heavens." I desire to engage 
 
 so 
 

 23 
 
 your minds wit^i this line of thought, then, viz : — Grod^s 
 supremest glory is moral. Physical nature cannot utter 
 this. But by revelation we have learned it. Then con- 
 sider the works of His hands — the product of His mind — 
 and see how profoundly He cares for, and is interested in 
 them. May we now, then, as moral beings infer that His 
 moral power would be equally exercised for the moral up- 
 lifting of our race ? 
 
 •I. There are many points in the physical nature of man 
 which in some sense link him with the brute. But the 
 empire of nature is his ; all its forces animate and inani- 
 mate, within the reach of his arm, or of his intellect, are 
 unresistingly tethered to his service. But is he in vital 
 attributes distinct from the realm he governs ? As living 
 organisms, are the highest and most differentiated brutes, 
 at an impassible distance from the lovrest man ? What 
 are the features of man's nature, as man, which are inalien- 
 ably his — of which the brute is no partaker, and which in 
 no sense are shared by the realm of life below ^ Many 
 such have been asserted, and the fiercest contests have been 
 fought around them ; many have vani hed, some still 
 remain ; but I know of one which no vicissitudes can 
 shake ; no n^ofoundities of research can alter ; it is that 
 man alone prays to the Infinite power that gave and that 
 sustains his life. It has been said that it is the glory of 
 man that he is erect ; that his free brow fronts heaven. It 
 may be ; but I yet aver that the distinguishing and imi)e- 
 rial attitude of man is on his knees. It is the lioyal condi- 
 tion on which he wears the crown of nature. Prayer is 
 universal. In every age, in every clime, savage or civilized, 
 man willingly or despite himself, has uttered, and does 
 utter, his anticipation or his anguish in prayer. Cure -o, 
 themselves, are but prayer inverted. In the written liter- 
 ature of the world's life prayer is an imperishable factor. 
 The great river of petition gathers up its waters from the 
 sobbing rills, and swelling rivulets of multiform prayer 
 
I5S 
 
 S4 
 
 flowing out of every age and every clime. And it can 
 never cease to flow. The act of prayer is immortal in the 
 soul of man. Painting, Sculpture, Music, Poetry can never 
 perish while man perceives and loves the beautiful. And 
 prayer " uttered or unexpressed " can never cease to move 
 the soul, while man is conscious — forever — of an awful 
 and uplifted presence on which his very being is pillowed. 
 Foi the existence of such a being I shall not argue. He 
 cannot be found or demonstrated by reasoning. The 
 methods of Science, and the Positive Philosophy, are too 
 coarse to find him. We may penetrate into, and perceive, 
 the exquisite adaptation of the physical universe, but we 
 cannot push our way up to the splendid mystery of its 
 Cause. The hard methods of induction, are unsensitized 
 to the subtle chemistry of the light that is above the 
 heavens. The all-encircling plenum "God" reacts to no 
 method used in the thousand laboritories of science. You 
 must come to the facts of Nature with your soul smitten 
 into '* flourescence " by the light that is above the heavens, 
 before Grod is indubitably seen. 
 
 B'ethren, I speak from no cursery knov; ledge when I 
 say, that foremost amongst the noblest truth-seekers on 
 this earth, are the leaders in the work and thought of 
 science to-day. And can there be any nobler work ? Is 
 it not better to follow Truth, though it lead to the grave 
 of our hopes, than to be cushioned lustful indolence upon 
 the Delilah-lap of falsehood ? Should any man under 
 heaven believe in the grandeur of truth more than they 
 who constitute the Christian Church ? Do we not own 
 her empire? Have we not circled her brow with the 
 rarest crown and laid at her feet the whole empire of 
 thought ? Then, as truth seekers, let us ask what are the 
 lessons to be derived from modern science ? What can it 
 teach us ? It has l{.c.en the world with a glorious herit- 
 age; its facts have made our age luminous with intel- 
 lectual beauty and promise. But says the anxious onlooker 
 
^5 
 
 tossing on the trouk ed waters of doubt ; swayed by the 
 subtil and daring thought which distinguishes our times ; 
 " What does your splendid array of facts tell us of Grod — 
 what is disclosed by it concerning the power from whom 
 nature sprung V Can He — will He — care for us ? Is he 
 loving, just, pitiful ? Are we more to hira than [lowers or 
 atoms '^ What can science tell us it has found concerning 
 the character of Grod ? The answer is calm as it is fearless : 
 " Nothing." " We can nowhere demonstrate His presence ; 
 the method we have employed has led us to truths of the 
 loftiest order, and to mysteries of the profoundest kind. 
 But to a scientific proof of a personal God, we have nowhere 
 come. Indeed to our method He is non-existent." Such is 
 the answer of the latest searchers ; and need I say it is an 
 answer wb jh has shocked and roused to scorn the Theo- 
 logical thought of the world. And yet it is profoundly 
 true ; it is the testimony of science to the unalterable 
 power of the ancient question, " Canst thou by searching 
 find out God, canst thou find out the Almighty to perfec- 
 tion ?" No. The physical method is incompetent for so 
 sublime a work ; and the masters of resjarch avow it- 
 Science could never have discovered for us an adorable 
 Deity. Then may we not calmly ask ivhy should Theology 
 retort upon this confessed incompetence " then you are an 
 Atheist, — an infidel, — a materialist V" Such weapons I 
 am free to declare, are only forged in the armoury of pallid 
 fear. They were not fashioned at the forge of charity ; 
 nor made to take form by the stalwart hands of faith. 
 And the fear is absolutely groundless. Science is proving 
 the validity of your Holy Book ; it cannot find out God. 
 But that — even to the men who make the avowal — is no 
 denial of His being ; far otherwise. It is a simple declara- 
 tion that if you find the Infinite Father as a Unity — a 
 personality — an adorable Power, you must come upon 
 Him by other means than these. And it is not out 
 very lifework to establish and amplify this truth ? Is 
 
26 
 
 U; 
 
 
 not the rock on which the pillars of Christianity are 
 based " no man — in spite of the tireless inquest of the 
 ages — hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son 
 which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath revealed 
 Him V" Is not the completed Grospel — the Christ of his- 
 tory, the only true response to the despairing affirmation 
 of the latest Science, " We cannot find God ?" And does 
 not He, as the consummation of all that preceded, reply, 
 "Ye cannot ; but He has been authoritatively revealed to 
 you ; and I have come to disclose His character — I and 
 my Father are one ?" 
 
 Depend upon it if man could fathom the meaning of this 
 Universe it would be the work of a finite mind. And if by 
 the tireh^sness of research we could in very deed scientific- 
 ally demonstrate the nature of the Source of all things, 
 and by our methods prove Him to be there, He would be 
 not only ^mte, but physical The demonstration would 
 dethrone Him ! The diadem of sovereignty would fall 
 from His creature-brow, and verily the Universe would 
 be Godless ! 
 
 It is true, by the study of Nature men have formulated 
 a conception, and called it God, — Spinoza's magnificent mind 
 did this ; but with what result ? Simply that God and 
 the Universe were one. The splendour of the heavens, 
 the beauties of the earth, and the soul of man were not 
 God's creatures, they were God Himself. And never did 
 naked intellect struggle so gi-andly with matter to find 
 its source as did this lonely Jew. 
 
 And there can be no other result ; when the scientific 
 student of nature has reached the outmost verge of human 
 knowledge, straining his eyes into the impenetrable dark- 
 ness, he is compelled to exclaim, "It is above, and beyond 
 and around all this that the true mystery of the Universe 
 is hidden." 
 
 II. And yet by a consent absolutely universal, — a con- 
 sent wide as the world, and far-reaching as history — man 
 
27 
 
 has in sotne form acknowledged and adored the tinsearch- 
 able Power. 
 
 The philosophy of this fact I do not attempt. How the 
 Ego, the I of human experience reached the Thou of 
 Infinite personality I may not consider. Enough that it 
 is an indisputable fact. But I am bound to ask what is 
 it in the unsearchable Power that the noblest spirits of 
 every age have bowed down to it and adored ? What is 
 it, that, in this age of thought and culture, impels 
 enlightened Christendom to lift its hands and bow its 
 knees to the Unseen? Not an intellectual abstraction 
 filtered out of the facts of Science ? As well might you 
 suppose that a tropical luxuriance could be called into 
 life by moonlight on the Arctic hills. Go into Nature 
 and find if you can an object of adoration. You must make 
 your own consciousness the foreground of the infinite 
 perspective of your quest ; but you may take with you 
 the method of the sculptor, and from the rude block of 
 your own intellectual life, you may, as taught by the 
 spirit of created things, cut into beauteous form the fair 
 ima^e they disclose ; or you may take with you the method 
 of the limner, and with the splendours of heaven and 
 earth for your pallet, you may depict in form and colour 
 a glorified abstraction. Look at it. Yes ! its features are 
 sublime. See how the forces of nature have stamped 
 themselves on the subtle pencilliugs. The swirl of suns, 
 the onward roll of countless Universe — the awful energy 
 in all things — this has depicted Poiver — calm, resistless, 
 insentient, defiant Power. Can you worship that ? No ! 
 You may tremble at it, but you cannot adore. 
 
 Look at the passionless splendour of your picture : you 
 have been studying measureless activity — in invisible 
 atoms and inaccessible suns. And everywhere you have 
 seen the same impassible repose — the splendour of uncon- 
 scious and eternal calm. Can you worship it ? It awes 
 you : but it does not bend your knee. 
 
a» 
 
 i 
 
 k 
 
 ■ 
 
 I can see traces in your mental picture that glow with 
 evidence that you were awed by proofs of unsearchable 
 wisdom, that you could find no limit to the greatness 
 around you ; while tints of benevolence gleam every- 
 where in your uplifted abstraction ; though they are 
 streak(^d and clouded ; for dark hues of death and lurid 
 shades of agony uHmId Hood your pallet. But there it 
 stands in its imperfect grandeur : the mind's picture of 
 the (fodhead painted in the tints of nature. Does it kindle 
 you into adoration V Does it fire you with a spirit of 
 self-surrender ? Do you feel for it " The speechless awe 
 that dares not move and all the silent heaven of love.' 
 No ! a thousand times, No ! 
 
 111. — Then v)hut is it in the unseen Power that softens 
 us into adoration, and lifts us into trust V Ah, it is some- 
 thing that is not Ibund in pale planet, or in fiery sun. It 
 is something which light cannot reveal, and which all the 
 forces of Nature would combine in vain to symbolize or 
 disclose. It is tlie moral grandeur of the Infinite Nature. He 
 is holiness. He is truth. He is spiritual beauty. His 
 throne is justice, His dexter arm is righteousness, and His 
 heart is love. It is this and this only that the soul of 
 man can worship. But this is a magnificence above the 
 heavens. Your chemistries cannot find it ; your physics 
 cannot formulate it ; your mathematics cannot symbolize 
 it. Matter can take no form that will disclose it, in all 
 the radiance of Nature this supernal light is lacking. It 
 is a light above the firmament ; it is a glory above the 
 heavens ; it is a beauty seen from far ; — the shimmer of 
 that light in which He dwells ; and which no man can 
 approach unto. 
 
 And, sirs, this, and only this, is the reason why the 
 Almighty is thought of and known as ineffably happy ; 
 it is because He is good. 
 
 The enlargement of a quality to infinity does not alter 
 its nature. In Creator, or in creature it is not splendour 
 
29 
 
 of circumstanre, not maguificenre of surroundings that 
 makes happiness. Grod is not happy because he is circled 
 by angels and throned amid stars. Happiness belongs 
 onlff to condition. He is ^ood; and thus He is liofipt/ ;, and 
 it is the soft radiance of this moral magniticcnce that 
 kindles our emotion and bends our knees. 
 
 How this inscrutable glory of the Almighty was first — 
 in the far past, discovered to all the diverse branches of 
 our race I know not. The morning rises on the night in 
 forerunning streaks of purple ; and in every age, amongst 
 every people born to think, there have been noble sjiirits 
 who have pillowed themselves upon a revealing God. 
 
 But the source and certainty of oitr knowledg«>, is the 
 Grospel — the life, the character and the mission of Christ. 
 He was the brightness of the Father's glory, the express 
 image of His Person. The otherwise unutterable perfec- 
 tions of the Deitv spoken in a human life. He and His 
 Father were one — He was the Word which nature could 
 not articulate. And in what was the Revelation He 
 brought us sublime and alone ? Was it in the flash of 
 omnipotent attributes, a hitherto unapproached dominion 
 over law and force, that distinguished Him in His solitary 
 greatness ? No. Miracle there was, enough to attest 
 His mission ; but His work was to utter the otherwise 
 unutterable mind of Grod. The invisible glories shining 
 above Nature, and to which the heavens and the earth 
 were opaque, had taken form in His soul. He was illimi- 
 table in power, but it was the power of holiness and 
 love. He was a King, but His empire was the spirit. He 
 was God's unsearchable splendour of character. " Mani- 
 fest in the Flesh " — the glory that is above the heavens 
 revealed. * 
 
 IV. — Brethren, I have dwelt long on this, for it has a 
 power and meaning in it. But I must lead you away 
 from it now, that, furnished with other thoughts, we may 
 approach it with an added meaning. It was a rare in- 
 
80 
 
 sight that enabled David to proclaim it. Few seers have 
 soared so high. But the delicate? poise which kept his 
 spirit hi^h enough to see the glory that was above the 
 heavens, was broken ; and he fell again to the more Inrid 
 lustre of suns and stars and universes. That strangely 
 divine insight »ould be but transient ; and when it van- 
 ished, and the physical magnificen«^e of the Universe took 
 its plac^e, one may not wonder that he fell to the human 
 thought. " What — amid all this greatness — h man that 
 Thou art mindful of him." 
 
 David had enlarged and noble views of the physical 
 universe ; he was oppressed with its awful greatness, 
 the minuteness of the earth and the meanness of man 
 Hashed vividly upon him ; a speck, in the measureless 
 All, why should the ever-blessed One concern Himself 
 with it ? What is man in the unmeasured complexities of 
 this vast Creation ? This is intensely human ; it is the 
 po t, not the seer, that speaks. Then nature flings sug- 
 gestions of the Infinite across the soul this thought will 
 come. The Almighty may concern Himself with moving 
 universes, or with molding the plastic nebulae into new 
 realms of being : but this puny earth, and man, what a 2 
 these " that He should be mindful of them ? " 
 
 But brethren, knowing that the physical beauties around 
 us are the product of a glorious mind ; learning it not first 
 from nature, but from Grod Himself, we may go to the 
 " work of His fingers " to learn if He does lock Himself 
 up with the vatt : — to see if He does scorn the little and 
 the lowly. Here and there, great and little, are not to 
 Grod : and they certainly have no true place in the moral 
 aspect of material things. Down to the uttermost verge 
 of littleness the perfection of matter is absolute. The 
 minutest objects in nature are those which are carved and 
 chiselled with the most entrancing beauty. Nature's motes 
 and atoms are more superbly finished than its masses. 
 The lowliest living thing, which must be magnified 
 
81 
 
 millions of times in area to be seen at all, is as perfectly 
 adapted to its sphere as a swallow or a man. The great 
 Power that wrought nature impressed tht^ evidences of 
 His care as much upon invisible orgunisms as upon 
 peopled <*onstellations. Could it be otherwise ? As if 
 the Care and Sovereignty of the Infinite could cease where 
 our poor eyes must cease to fellow^ ! As if He, whose glory 
 is above the heavens, w^ould evolve (ni//tliin^- over which 
 His dominion would not stretch or His infinite benevo- 
 lence be diffused ! j 
 No brethren, I turn from David to Christ in this matter ; 
 — from the human poet in a human mood to the Divine 
 Instructor. Stand by the margin of that sheltered slope 
 in Gallillee, its verdure tinted with th(! hues of ilowers — 
 and harken ! It is Christ that speaks : " Consider the lilies 
 of the field how they grow, they toil not neither do I hey 
 spin ; and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory 
 was not arrayed like one of these : whebekork if God so 
 clothe the grass of the field . . . shall He not much more clothe 
 you ?" Oh ! 'that is a pro founder insight ! No suggestion of 
 imperial splendours that cannot stoop to atoms there ! 
 David's wonder, is the flutter of a human feeling ; Christ's 
 assurance is the placid utterance of a Divine truth, God 
 cares for the lilies ; but ye are more than lilies; then fear 
 not for God cares for t/ou. Study the power of that lesson ; 
 look at the beauty and the force of the illustration. See 
 Solomon in his glory. He is robed and crowned and 
 canopied with the ri(?hest and the rarest from the farthest 
 land and sea. How came that splendour there ? Did 
 earth and air and sky combine, in unintelligent caprice to 
 glorify the voluptuous King ? No ; it was the result of 
 intelligence, wisdom, will, design. Then behold the ///;/ 
 in its outer beauty and its inner life. Whence came it 1 
 Was it chance — the fortuituous concourse of soulless 
 atoms smiting each other in their reckless onrush, — that 
 produced the lily and preserves it? No — affirms the 
 
 ilV'i 
 
 '■W! 
 
32 
 
 Christ — it is God. Then if there be no fear for the lilies 
 need I fear ? No brethren ! We are pillowed on the bosom 
 of the Everlastinfr and why should we fear ? Because He is 
 infinite He cares for the lily : Then let not man dishonor 
 llim by supposing that He does not care for him. 
 
 v.— What then have we learned? (1) That God's 
 supremest glory is His moral beauty, and (2) that the 
 evidences of His sovereign care in material things are as 
 supreme in the minute as in the vast. There is one 
 higher lesson. The lilies are cared for ; but they know it 
 not. Man — greater than the lilies — is cared for, and he 
 may knoin it. He is in one respect above Nature ; he has 
 been taught by Christ to call the everlasting God his 
 Father. 
 
 And what is the essence of fatherhood, but the imparta- 
 tion of the parental nature to the child ? What is it but 
 the giving of that which is purest and best in itself to its 
 ofi'spring ? 
 
 Then what is the glory and beauty of God. What is that 
 which is best in the Infinite Father? His CHARAOT'iiR, 
 His mornl beauty, His spiritual holiness. Then if He 
 will stoop to the soulless lily, to nurture and to paint it, 
 will He not watch and ennoble the soul of man ? Shall 
 ifje commiserate the stricken, the fallen, the depraved, and 
 He have no power to do so ? Shall He who wrought the 
 capacity for love and pity in us be without love and pity 
 Himself? Shall He w^ho planted the eye not see ? 
 
 Brethren, can you care more for your house, and your 
 vineries, and your pictures than you do for your child ? 
 Have you more interest in your chinking gold than in the 
 beating heart of your eldest born ? 
 
 Then can you think that God cares more for passionless 
 lilies than He does for the throbbing, yearning, sin- 
 stricken soul of man ? Nay ! He cares more for men 
 than for motes or mountains, or for the stars themselves. 
 And if He cares for their physical good — their mental 
 good — will He not care for their moral ? 
 
38 
 
 '1 
 
 If II«» adjust li«^ht to the oyes and the oyo to tlic light 
 — need it surprise us, if IIo uso moans to lift tht^ soul up ? 
 If He clothe the grass of the field, shall He not meet the 
 moral necessities of immortal men? God delighted iu 
 all His creatures or He would never have made them. 
 But how much higher must he His delight in heings 
 radiant with his own image. Man w///.s/ Ik' nearer to God 
 than the llovvers of the lield, or even tht' most exalted 
 brutes. Nay more, a man of uhuis must be nearer to God 
 than a man o f .Ny'//.sy///o//,s' only: and from the very nature 
 of the Godhead a man of high moral purposes and great 
 spiritual resolves miisl be dearer to the Divine natur*' 
 than a man of the most brilliant intellect or the j>ro- 
 foundest knowledge without this: 
 
 Hence it is that the obscurest human being may arrest 
 the attention of the angels of heaven ; nay, it may bring 
 the infinite Father from the "housetop" of His glory to 
 welcome and to kiss the soul stricken with great moral 
 conviction and intense in the greatness of its spiritual 
 resolve. 
 
 Moral movement on earth is a power in heaven. The 
 keyboard of moral purpose, stricken on earth, produces 
 the loftiest music round the throne ; but the highest 
 triumphs of our inlellect are surpassed where the angels are. 
 Intellect in His creatures is precious to God who breathed 
 it there ; artist, and poet, and sage — Handel and Raphai'l, 
 Shakes[)eare and Homer, Spinoza and Plato — but there is 
 to God a form that in the brightness of his beauty in- 
 finitely " excelleth " these : it is the Saint — the soul who 
 by moral and spiritual conquest has fought his bloodless 
 way to the mind of Christ, the moral likeness of God. 
 Then this is the victory that overcometh the world-even 
 our faith. The heavens are very great, but God is greater 
 than they. The heavens are very glorious, but God has an 
 infinitely above that which is seen in them. Throughout 
 all the Universe man alone can perceive and reflect that 
 3 
 
:}4 
 
 glory. lUit th«» minor ol" niiui's soul is dim — a moral 
 })liiKbioKs has smittcm him <h»' world lioth in darkness. 
 Naiiit'h'ss degradations demoralized the God-like i)0SNi])i- 
 lities of the rare, some poriions of the human brother- 
 hood an^ in the nethermost djirkn«'ss of spiritual deeay. 
 
 But, brethren, God has interposed lor man's uplifting. 
 The everlasting Father has stooped down to save us. We 
 have been permitted to see its meaning and to feel its 
 power — God's method for the healing of the nations : and 
 to fts the mighty command and the awful responsibility 
 is given — " Go ye into all the world and preaeh the Gospel 
 to every «'reature." We are essential factors, in the moral 
 evolution to which we are indebted. The world's up- 
 lifting is dependent — spiritually — upon the Church. The 
 coronation day of Christ may be hastened by the holy 
 resolve and faithful labour of the churches. We have the 
 liffht for which the nations lonir.