mki 
 
LIBRA.RY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Theological Seminary, 
 
 i PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 1 
 
 BL 240 .B87 1872 
 Burr, E. F. 1818-1907. 
 Pater mundi, or,. Modern 
 science testifying to the 
 
 
PATER MUNDI; 
 
 OR, 
 
 MODERN SCIENCE TESTIFYING TO THE 
 HEAVENLY FATHER. 
 
 BEING 
 
 IN SUBSTANCE 
 
 LECTURES DELIVERED TO SENIOR CLASSES IN 
 AMHERST COLLEGE. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. E. F. BURR, D. D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "eCCE CCELUM." 
 
 ^71117] 6' OVTig TTCl/jLTTaV UTtoTJcVTaL, fjVTLVU TTOA/lot 
 
 A.aol (brjiiiCiovaL- Qeog vv tic earl kuI avTTj. 
 
 Hesiod. 
 
 FIRST SERIES, 
 
 FIFTH EDITION. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 NOYES, HOLMES, AND COMPANY. 
 
 No. 117 Washington Stkkkt. 
 I»72. 
 
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the vear 1869, by 
 
 Nichols and Noyes, 
 b the Clerk's Offii e of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts 
 
 RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY 
 
 H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY 
 
To THE 
 
 HEAVENLY FATHER, 
 
 TO WHOM WE DEDICATE OUR SABBATHS, OUK SAXCTU/^ RIEIj 
 AND OURSELVES, 
 
 2C|)e»e "ITolumcs, 
 
 IN ILLUSTRATION OF HIS BEING AND GREATNESS, 
 ARE REVERENTLY INSCRIBED. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The whole plan of the author looks beyond the 
 present volumes. It proposes to defend and illus- 
 trate both Theism and Christianity from the side oi 
 Modern Science. This accounts for the structure 
 of the first two lectures. 
 
 In the second volume the appeals to the Sciences 
 will be found more direct and full than even in 
 this — especially as negativing that Law Scheme 
 which is the only present competitor of Theism as 
 an explanation of Nature. 
 
 These lectures were designed to be spoken to 
 College Classes on the eve of graduation. Hence 
 some peculiarities. They speak to the ear. They 
 speak to the young. They speak to educated young 
 men who may be presumed familiar with general 
 classical as well as scientific knowledge ; and whom 
 it is of the last importance to have go forth into 
 the world richly assured of the exceeding breadth 
 of the Christian Foundations, and richly prepared to 
 manifest them to all unbelievers. So the lectures 
 are zealous for a side. They are anxious to carry 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 a point. They appear not to have discovered that 
 one must be indifferent in order to be fair. They 
 affect no philosophic impartiahty ; but speak as a 
 Christian believer, to the sons of Christian parents, 
 and within a Christian college which has not yet 
 thought it necessary to teach neutrality (or worse) 
 between Christianity and Buddhism, from chairs rest- 
 ing on Christian endowments. 
 
 The author states some things very strongly. But 
 he does not suppose himself to have stated them 
 more strongly than facts warrant. He feels very hos- 
 tile to Atheism. He holds it the worst enemy of 
 mankind. Its recent attempts to shelter itself under 
 the great name of Science greatly move his indig- 
 nation. He is amazed at its effrontery in claiming 
 that a single true science looks ^ on it with favor. 
 At the same time he aims to be just, even to 
 Satan. What he would gladly destroy in the inter- 
 est of humanity, he would only destroy by the lawful 
 use of lawful weapons. 
 
 The larger part of the sixth lecture has been pub- 
 lished before. But as it properly belongs to this 
 course of lectures, and as the omission of it would, 
 in the author's view, mar the symmetry of his gen- 
 eral plan, he has thought best to insert it in its 
 proper place. 
 
 Lyme, Conn., Nov. 30, 1869. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. Experimental Method. 
 
 I. ILLUSTRATIONS 9 
 
 ». APPLICATION TO RELIGION il 
 
 3. RELIGIOUS VALUE 19 
 
 II. Argumentative Method. 
 
 1. possibility 29 
 
 2. propriety v • 35 
 
 3. PROFIT .38 
 
 III. Application of the Argumentative Method. 
 
 1. PRINCIPLES S3 
 
 2. THESIS 59 
 
 3. FIRST OBJECTION — NATURA SUFFICIT . . . .64 
 
 4. SECOND OBJECTION — MACULE 67 
 
 IV. Maculae. 
 
 1. SECOND OBJECTION CONTINUED 81 
 
 2. PATERNAL ANALOGIES 83 
 
 3. LAW OF THE INFINITE 99 
 
 4. LAW OF CONSCIENCE , . lot 
 
 5. LAW OF PATERNITY 103 
 
 S. LAW OF CHARITY 106 
 
 7. LAW OF THE GENERAL RULE 108 
 
 B. TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT . . . . . . .114 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 V. In Tenebris. 
 
 I. THIRD OBJECTION * . . . 119 
 
 z. NARROW INTELLIGENCE 119 
 
 3. FRAIL BODY 121 
 
 4. FRAIL REASON . ■ 123 
 
 5. FRAIL SENSIBILITY ... 126 
 
 6. DEPRAVITY 132 
 
 7. TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT 138 
 
 VI. Harmonies with Nature. 
 
 1. VASTNESS 157 
 
 2. VARIETY IN UNITY 161 
 
 3. FINISH OF MINIMA .... .... 166 
 
 4. WISDOM i6g 
 
 5. DYNAMICS 175 
 
 6. RELATION TO LAW 180 
 
 7. RELATION TO TIME AND MOTION ... 186 
 
 8. MYSTERY 191 
 
 ^. TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT 196 
 
 VII. Need of God. 
 
 1. POLARITIES OF CHARACTER . * 203 
 
 2. PRACTICAL INFLUENCE OF FAITH 208 
 
 3. DIRECT DIVINE ACTION 223 
 
 4. TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT 228 
 
 VIII. Theism as a Scientific Hypothesis. 
 
 1. PERFECTLY SUFFICIENT 257 
 
 2. AS CREDIBLE, A PRIORI ........ 258 
 
 3. SIMPLEST 261 
 
 4. SUREST 268 
 
 5. SAFEST 271 
 
 6. SUBLIMEST 274 
 
 7. SUITED BEST TO HUMAN CONVICTIONS AND TRA- 
 
 DITIONS 276 
 
 I. TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT 286 
 
I. 
 
 EXPERIMENTAL METHOD. 
 
 KaAois av (tol 6 ©€os Avtos $vXXajjL/3dvoi.. — Flafo, 
 
. I. Experimental Method. 
 
 I. ILLUSTRATIONS ... 9 
 
 I. APPLICATION TO RELIGION , u 
 
 3. RELIGIOUS VALUE ^ 
 
FIRST LECTURE. 
 
 EXPERIMENTAL METHOD. 
 
 THERE are two ways in which men assure them- 
 selves of the qualities of material objects. One 
 is the way of argument : the other is that of direct 
 personal experiment. A man of reputation tells 
 me that a certain sort of wood is tough, flexible, and 
 hard ; or I see it extensively used for purposes to 
 which these qualities are essential ; or the general 
 appearance and arrangement of the fiber, I find, 
 are the same as in other woods known to have these 
 qualities — these are so many arguments from 
 which in a way of inference my mind reaches a 
 belief in the toughness, flexibility, and hardness of 
 that wood. But, if I choose, I may reach the same 
 belief in another way. I may strike my own ham- 
 mer on that wood, and see what resistance it makes 
 to indentation. I may take it into my own hands 
 and try to bend it. I may with my own fingers or 
 wedges attempt to tear it asunder. Thus by a 
 direct personal trial, and not at all in the way of 
 
10 FIRST lecture: 
 
 argumentative inference, I may convince myself 
 that tlie wood is what it is claimed to be. 
 
 In the same twofold way we may satisfy our- 
 selves of the existence of certain spiritual qualities. 
 Is your acquaintance generous, is he honest, is he 
 capable ? You may argue out an answer for your- 
 self, or you may obtain it by the personal applica- 
 tion of certain practical tests. Honest? Yes, you 
 may say, for it is an honest family to which he be- 
 longs, and I know that from childhood he has had 
 instruction and trainino; fitted to make an honest 
 man. Besides, he bears a good reputation for hon- 
 esty. Tliose with whom he has had dealings speak 
 well of liim. This is argument. A judgment is 
 reached inferentially from other judgments or facts. 
 But there is such a thing as your making a direct 
 experiment on the man which will settle the ques- 
 tion of his honesty to your mind without help from 
 any other quarter. Put in his way an opportunity 
 of taking some small unfair advantage of you with 
 apparently entire safety, and see what he will do 
 with it. Try him again and again at a variety of 
 points, and watch how he carries himself under 
 tlie temptation. This will finally show you what 
 the man is — perhaps will show you that his 
 word is as good as a bond, and that you might ven- 
 ture to trust him with eveiy dollar you are worth. 
 You have personally experimented upon him in true 
 Bat'onian and scientific way, and found him trust- 
 worthy in the last degree. With your own hands 
 
APPLICATION TO RELIGION. 11 
 
 you have applied the acid to what men call gold, 
 and have found that gold it really is. See how the 
 metal shines under the nitric drop ! 
 
 Suppose, now, that our inquiries, instead of relat- 
 ino; to attributes of matter or attributes of the 
 human soul, relate to that still higher plane of 
 thought, the attributes of God and His Word — 
 say the reality of the Christian God and the divinity 
 of the Christian Scriptures. Have we still the 
 same two ways of information that are universally 
 allowed in dealing with those questions of the lower 
 order ? Can w^e properly argue, and can we prop- 
 erly experiment also ? The first question I re- 
 serve to be answered in the next lecture : the sec- 
 ond I propose to answer now, because I regard it as 
 primary in its character. I repeat, can we and 
 may we put things of such great names and au- 
 gust claims as the Christian God and the Christian 
 Scriptures under substantially just such direct prac- 
 tical tests as show us that a given wood is hard, 
 and a given man honest ? This question is an in- 
 terestlncr one — for the reasons that the radical ex- 
 perimental method is found so enormously powerftil 
 and fruitful in the lower fields of inquiry, that we 
 ■leed all the light on the alleged God and Revela- 
 tion we can possibly obtain, and that there is more- 
 or less current the idea that it is not possible, or at 
 least lawful, to deal with such great spiritual mat- 
 ters in the way of critical experiment. The great 
 questions that stand before the world from age to 
 
12 FIRST LECTURE. 
 
 age, and which make all others almost invisible, are 
 these. Is God real ? Are the Christian Scriptures 
 His message ? There are some in the world — we 
 suppose an ever-decreasing number — who to these 
 questions are prepared to say, " ISTo," or are not pre- 
 pared to say, " Yes " — disbelievers or unbelievers. 
 Then there is another class who truly believe in 
 God and Scripture ; but their faith is far from be- 
 ing as large-limbed, and muscular, and majestic of 
 mien as they could desire. Lastly, there are those 
 who themselves believe almost as though they saw, 
 but who would hke to communicate something of 
 their own full assurance of faith to the many around 
 whose condition is less happy, and on whom mere 
 argument seems so largely spent In vain. To all 
 these classes it is a question of very great moment 
 whether the field of religion, like every other field, 
 is open to the double-handed exploration of aro-u- 
 ment and personal experiment — whether, after 
 having exhausted or, what is much better, before 
 touching the system of premises and Inferences, they 
 may not bare their arms and go forth on the sub- 
 jects of God and Scripture with such practical 
 tests as shall be to them what the hammer is to the 
 wood that asks to be considered hard, and actual 
 opportunities of safe cheating to the man who asks 
 to be considered honest. The Idea of experiment- 
 ing on God and His Word may have at first quite 
 an objectionable look. It looks, perhaps, like irrev- 
 erence and audacity and desecration. One gets his 
 
APPLICATION TO RELIGION. 13 
 
 mind filled witli the idea of coarse mechanical ex- 
 periments and of the harsh, irreverent ways in 
 which they are sometimes played off on creature- 
 natures ; and when mention is made of religious 
 experiments, the gross old ideas still cling about the 
 new thought. It seems as if nothing of the kind 
 would be allowable out of the low realm of the 
 commonplace and profane world. How it sounds 
 to talk of trying experiments on God and Religion ! 
 In answering this current, or at least not unfre- 
 quent, feehng, it must be admitted at the outset that 
 there are experiments on these objects of which we 
 may not entertain thought for a moment. They 
 would be extreme presumption and sacrilege. Our 
 instinctive sense of propriety would revolt from 
 them as putting dishonor on the conception of a 
 God and a Relig-ion. When the Jews came to Jesus 
 on a certain occasion, saying, " Master, we would 
 see a sign from thee," what they proposed to do 
 was then and there to try a direct experiment on 
 His miraculous power. The proposal met a severe 
 rebuff. If one of you should rise in his place and 
 say, " If there is a God, let Him immediately show 
 Himself by casting yonder hill into the river," his 
 experiment would be a very wrong one. If one of 
 you should take it on himself to cry out towards the 
 heavens, " If the religion of Jesus is divine, let 
 rain this moment fall from a clear sky," his experi- 
 ment would be a very wrong one. If he should 
 put Liberalism to a similar test, saying, " If it is 
 
14 FIRST LECTURE. 
 
 really Scripture that God is Trinity and future 
 punishment everlasting, let a plumed angel at once 
 appear in that door-way, and say so," his experi- 
 ment would be a very wrong one. All such tests 
 are plain irreverence and presumption. They set 
 up our wisdom as supreme, and presume to dictate 
 terms and methods to God. This will never do. 
 Let the rash man take the shoes from his feet as he 
 nears the place where perchance God is concealed : 
 why must a voice smite him with the information 
 that all such places are holy ? 
 
 Yes, there are many experiments on God and 
 the Scriptures which would be highly improper — 
 say, if you please, intolerable. But it would be a 
 great misfortune if, on glancing at some of these, 
 we should hastily conclude that everything of the 
 sort is contraband. You cannot properly put it 
 upon God, supposed real, 16 prove Himself, His 
 Word, or any of its doctrines by any given species 
 or form of argument, arbitrarily selected. We have 
 no right to instance Ontology, or Physiology, or His- 
 tory, or Astronomy, and insist upon it that God 
 shall prove Himself by means of our favorite science 
 and under our favorite forms of reason. A God is 
 Himself best judge of what arguments it will be 
 best for us to have — assuminiy it best for us to have 
 some — and He is entitled to choose His own. It 
 would be quite as presumptuous for us to dictate to 
 Him in this matter, as it would be to dictate to Him 
 what experiments he must submit to for the in- 
 
APPLICATION TO RELIGION. 15 
 
 crease cf our faith. But because it would be im« 
 proper for us to demand that God should prove Him- 
 self to us by certain arguments of a class chosen 
 by ourselves, we do not conclude that all arguments 
 for that object are unlawful. We may be author- 
 ized to desire arguments in favor of what we are 
 called on to believe ; if so, we are authorized to 
 ask that they be sound and sufficient — only we are 
 not allowed to require that they be of this or that 
 sort, or that they come to us in this or that way. 
 So with these experiments. We cannot appoint to 
 God what arguments for Himself He shall allow us , 
 nor can we appoint to Him what experiments He 
 shall allow us. Nevertheless, there may be good 
 and lawful arguing in that quarter to be done ; and 
 there may be equally good and lawful experiment- 
 ino-. There are direct practical trials of God and 
 Scripture which we can make for the benefit of 
 faith, which are no setting up of our own wisdom, 
 no presumptuous dictations to Him who may prove 
 to be the Most High, no familiar and irreverent ap- 
 plications of as it were hammer and acid to the 
 Holy of Holies, to the ark of the covenant, and 
 even to Him who sitteth between the cherubim. 
 But they are such as Faraday and Brewster, rever- 
 ent interpreters of nature, seemed to be making 
 when from a distance some disciple watched them 
 poring with shaded eyes and shrinking, half-re- 
 treating attitude over a beam of light fresh fi'om the 
 sun, or the keen elemental fire that leaps from the 
 
16 FIRST LECTURE. 
 
 batteries of galvanism. And the doings may all be 
 in the manner of yon uncovered and hushed physi- 
 cian. Is not that sick man of monarchs the great- 
 est and best ? Is he not the great warrior and 
 statesman and father of his people ; and does not 
 his empire kiss at once sunrising and sun setting, 
 sweep the breadth of three continents, swelter under 
 the solden suns of the Bosphorus and glisten in 
 perpetual whiteness beneath the frozen pole ? But 
 now he is prostrate ; and that medical adviser 
 enters with bare brow and muffled step. He places 
 his finger on that pulse as if rose and sank with it 
 the majesty of a nation's life, and of a dynasty 
 awful with the glory of a thousand years. In the 
 same spirit may we and should we deal with these 
 imperial questions relating to august God and Reve- 
 lation. 
 - The God and Revelation *of Christendom have 
 furnished their own practical tests. They have 
 shown us what experiments they are willing to 
 have us make on them. We are not to make arbi- 
 trary and unauthorized experiments ; none what- 
 ever in a spirit of lightness or audacity ; but such 
 as are actually furnished in the Scriptures we may 
 freely use, minding to do all with a modesty befit- 
 ting the great conceptions with which we deal. 
 
 Among these lawful and actually furnished ex- 
 periments are the following — which I offer, not in 
 the name of practical religion, but in the name of 
 Modern Science. The Scriptures make many, 
 
APPLICATION TO RELIGION. 17 
 
 clear, and striking promises to liberality. Thus ; 
 " The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that 
 watereth shall be watered also himself. Honor the 
 Lord with thy substance and with the first-fruits of 
 all thine increase ; so shall thy barns be filled with 
 plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new 
 wine." " Give, and it shall be given you ; good 
 measure, pressed down, and shaken together and 
 running over, shall men give into your bosom." 
 And so on in wonderful profusion. Now, unbeliever 
 or weak believer, make an experiment. Be liberal, 
 and see whether these promises are not fulfilled to 
 you. See whether the property, or what you are 
 disposed to accept as its full equivalent, does not 
 accumulate. Then you will have put to a direct 
 practical test both God and the Scriptures — the 
 reality of the one and the divinity of the other. — 
 Again, it is written that if we pray for the Holy 
 Spirit and religious blessings in general with sin- 
 cerity and earnestness, they shall without fail be 
 given. For blessings of this sort the language is, 
 " Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall 
 find ; knock, and it shall be opened to you : for every 
 one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh 
 findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be 
 opened." Now, unbeliever or weak believer, make 
 an experiment. Perse veringly put your heart into 
 prayer for these blessings, and see whether they do 
 not come. So will you put the alleged revelation 
 to a searching practical test, and, as it were, bring 
 
18 FIRST LECTURE. 
 
 the reality of its God and of its inspiration within 
 reach of the senses. — Again, it is written that tliey 
 who follow conscience faithfully shall in so doing 
 come to something better than the light of nature, 
 namely, a written revelation — come to an assured 
 faith in Jesus and His doctrine. " If any man will 
 do His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it 
 be of God or whether I speak of myself." Now, 
 unbeliever or weak believer, make an experiment. 
 Go to walking most carefully according to the light 
 you have on matters of duty, and see whether faith 
 in the Scripture and a scriptural God does not shake 
 a freer wing, and soar nearer the sun, than ever 
 f before. So will you bring religion out of the hands 
 of Plato into the hands of Bacon ; will transfer it 
 from the dry world of tradition or logic into the 
 green world of actual personal experiment ; will, as it 
 were, put it where your hands can feel it, and where, 
 like the unbelieving apostle, you can even put your 
 finger into the print of the nails, and thrust your 
 hand into the side of both natural and revealed the- 
 ology. Act on the Bible itself carefully as a rule of 
 life, and see whether it does not most palpably agree 
 with your constitution, as much so as delicious 
 water and bread do with your body — so showing 
 by a personal trial of your own that the two were 
 made for each other by the author of both. You 
 can safely make these practical trials. They are 
 not of your selecting and dictating. They are 
 furnished ready to your hand by the parties who 
 
RELIGIOUS VALUE. 19 
 
 are to be tested by them. These parties not only 
 consent, but urgently request to be tested by them. 
 If this fair offer and manifold urgency be successful 
 — if you conduct the experiment with fitting rever- 
 ence, gazing with shaded eyes, and stretching out 
 trembling, half-retreating hand toward the possible 
 Uncreated Light and Celestial Fire that condescend 
 to offer themselves to the criticism of your experi- 
 ence — you can, so says the alleged and alleging 
 Religion, if you are without faith, get it ; if you 
 have small faith, you can increase it ; if your own 
 faith is strong like sight and you wish to impart the 
 like to the weak and the doubting and the disbeliev- 
 ing around you, you can powerfully say to them, 
 " Sirs, the truth and excellencj^ of the fundamental 
 religious doctrine, of the Theism and the Clu'isti- 
 anity, are to me not mere matters of tradition or 
 logic, but matters of direct personal experiment. I 
 have, so to speak, ' tasted and seen ' that God is, 
 is what the Christian Scriptures represent Him, is 
 the author of those Scriptures. Take my testi- 
 mony, as you would if I should say that I have 
 smitten on this wood and found it to be hard, or 
 have put a drop of nitric acid on this metal and 
 found it to be gold." 
 
 This method is strictly scientific. It is just as 
 Baconian as the process that has built up our 
 chemistry and our other natural sciences into 
 such admirable splendor. It is the eldest-born of 
 the Inductive Philosophy; and if any claim that 
 
20 FIRST LECTURE. 
 
 its accent is that of the pulpit, I answer that it is 
 equally that of the laboratory. In my opinion, any 
 scheme for promoting an intellectual faith in God 
 and the Scriptures that does not include this Ex- 
 perimental Method, is as much against the true 
 modern philosophy as against religion. More than 
 this — any scheme that does not place this method 
 in the foreground, as having supreme rank and as 
 vastly better than any argumentative method can 
 possibly be by itself, is a failure. What is com- 
 monly called arguing, namely, the establishing and 
 putting together certain propositions, and then draw- 
 ing a conclusion from them, is, no doubt, a very 
 useful thing — nowhere, as we have in due time to 
 make evident, more useful than in the field of 
 fundamental religious doctrine. At the same time 
 it ought to be distinctly professed that in tliis field 
 no possible argumentative pr(5of can equal in some 
 main respects its elder sister, the experimental ; and 
 that no actual logic has equalled it in point of suc- 
 cess. Such practical experiments as I have men- 
 tioned can readily be made by men of the narrowest 
 leisure, capacity, and knowledge : their ordinary 
 pursuits need not be interfered with in the slightest. 
 Not so with a large portion of arguments on the 
 same theme. To be properly estimated, these re- 
 quire talent, education, and studious leisure in no 
 Bmall degree. But who cannot put God and the 
 Scriptures on the test of this actual experiment ? 
 Who so poor, so weak, so ill informed, so uncultured, 
 
RELIGIOUS VALUE. 21 
 
 SO busy that he cannot try these things by his liberal- 
 ity, by his prayer, by his conscientious living? Such 
 a variety of easy practical methods enables all the 
 world to become critics in religion. And, in point 
 of fact, many times as many converts from unbelief 
 have been made by them as by all the exertions of 
 logic. I do not as yet say that logic has any proper 
 place within this field ; but it has been widely sup- 
 posed to have, and so has been sent out in vast 
 masses and in every style of armament to conquer 
 the unbeliefs and disbeliefs of the world. It has had 
 its successes. Spolia opima have been won. Tri- 
 umphs have been decreed. But never such tri- 
 umphs as have been granted to the Experimental 
 Method — triumphs of the first order — not ova- 
 tions, but triumphs — triumphs in which laurels 
 have waved like a forest, and in which chained 
 champions and monarchs have gone in long pro- 
 cession after the captive wealth of empires and 
 races. The great body of Christian believers in all 
 ages have had no other rational faith than such as 
 they obtained and maintained by actually putting 
 the Christian Religion, with its God and inspired 
 Bible, to the test of practice : thus verifying in 
 their experience its adaptation to the human nature 
 and condition, its transforming power, and the 
 faithfulness of its promises. Moreover, an argu- 
 mentative faith, as well as a traditional one, is 
 observed to have always a certain deadness about it 
 till it is supplemented and inspired by the faith that 
 
22 FIBST LECTURE. 
 
 comes from direct personal experiment. The latter, 
 when acquired, becomes a soul to the former. It 
 paints its clayey cheek with speaking vermilion. It 
 lights up its lack-luster eye with the beautiful fires 
 of thought, and feeling, and force. Oh, how that 
 poor mass of flesh and blood, by courtesy called 
 man, and which yesterday could not stand on its 
 feet or even scarcely fetch a breath as it lay with 
 glassy eyes by the v/ayside — how strongly to-day 
 heave the arches of its breast ; how buoyantly it 
 springs to its feet, and, with head uplift to heaven, 
 plants itself like a pyramid ; how swiftly now and 
 strongly it marches hither and thither, with every 
 feature alive, and every muscle strung for doing and 
 daring ! A soul has entered the clay. The form 
 now tabernacles a power. Welcome, O great, 
 beautiful, glorious Transformer ! No vinous life 
 art thou, no life galvanic, but true Divine Breath, 
 the mighty afflatus of actual personal experience 
 in relimon : lo, thou hast wrought that wondrous 
 chancre, and made of the mock man a real one ! — 
 The proof of God and the Scriptures by personal 
 experiment has also this advantage over any possible 
 proof by argument ; namely, that it has an intrinsic 
 value of its own, apart from its character as a means 
 of faith. In general, an argument is worth nothing 
 beyond its tendency to produce faith. But the 
 course of beneficence, of prayer, of conscientious 
 living, is in itself always a mighty blessing, even 
 were no religious faith to result. 
 
RELIGIOUS VALUE. 23 
 
 According to the Christian system of rehgion, 
 everything depends on possessing faith. We must 
 beheve in God, in the Scriptures, and in their princi- 
 pal doctrines ; and the broader and deeper our belief 
 is, the better it will be for us. If we have a sincere 
 faith, then we need to make it great ; if it is great, 
 we need to make it royal ; if it is royal, we need to 
 make it perfect ; if we could say it is perfect in our- 
 selves, we should still need to originate or improve 
 it in a host of others as being the greatest favor we 
 can confer upon them. So that to all of us this 
 broad method, this scientific method, of faith by 
 means of personal experiment and induction, is a 
 matter of high moment. A plentiful use of it is 
 the great want of the times. And we may be sure 
 that quite too Httle account is made of it, even 
 among most of those w^ho have been most indebted 
 to it for such measures of faith as they have. Even 
 these too often assume that all improvement in this 
 foundation grace must proceed in the way of argu- 
 ment. If themselves need to be stronger believers, 
 they do not think of experimenting : it is either 
 waiting for what the winds will bring them, or it is 
 arguing. If others are to be rid of their doubts, 
 they are, primarily and perhaps solely, to be argued 
 with. Here is a profound mistake. What at the 
 most is secondary, is made primary. It is not the 
 reason that is so much at fault in cases of deficient 
 faith : it is the practical part of us. The remedy 
 ,8 not so much syllogizing as it is doing. It is not 
 
24 FIRST LECTURE. 
 
 argument and experiment that is wanted : at the 
 most it is experiment and argument. The one is 
 the hghtning that unsolders and seams the masonry 
 of Doubting Castle : the other is more like the bil- 
 lowy and thunderous air that rolls in afterward, 
 wave upon wave, to help in shaking the ugly 
 structure to pieces. The foremost great thing to be 
 done for our weak-faithed selves and our weak- 
 faithed neighbors is to send them to school in the 
 first department of the Inductive Philosophy. 
 They must be put up to that which in religion an- 
 swers to the hammer of the geologist, the acid of the 
 chemist, and the prism of the optician. They 
 must personally try practical tests on God and 
 Scripture. They must take such tests as the Chris- 
 tian Deity and Scriptures offer to be tried by, and 
 faithfully and reverently go into a sacred experi- 
 ment. This I have felt bound to put forward as 
 the leading work to be done in favor of faith. Let 
 these men of scant faith all around us try God and 
 the Bible by their promises. Let them test these 
 great allegations by generous beneficence, by hearty 
 persevering prayer for spiritual blessings, by non- 
 estly endeavoring to go by the obviously just rules 
 of the Scriptures in all the every-day walks of life. 
 This will do more for them tlian libraries of ar^ru- 
 ment could do without it. It is a means universally 
 accessible, has done wonders in its day, and is wait- 
 ing at the gate of every man who needs more faith 
 than he has, to do them again for his benefit. It 
 
RELIGIOUS VALUE. 25 
 
 may not do them at once ; it may render its proofs 
 somewhat tardily and amid some discouragements ; 
 but it is according to experience that for any 
 given man this method will accomplish a quicker as 
 well as a stronger faith in God and the Scriptures 
 than any other method by itself could have done 
 for him. If the man is such in his natural turn of 
 mind and habits that it will take years at the Ex- 
 perimental Method to convince him, he is such a 
 man as would hardly be convinced by a lifetime at 
 .any other school. But the crowning thing is that 
 the experimentalist is sure of great success in the 
 end. Whatever the adverse appearances and long 
 delays, the promise that he shall " know of the doc- 
 trine," will at last come to fulfillment. He shall 
 not die till his faith lives. And though, in some 
 rare instance, he should be tried with as much de- 
 lay and as great seeming adversities as Joseph had 
 while on his way to the fulfillment of his dreams 
 and the premiership of Egypt, still, the faith which 
 he shall surely reach at last shall be of that royal 
 kind that will plenarily pay for all. As with the 
 Hebrew, his De Profundis shall full surely become 
 his In Excelsis. 
 
 To the pit- bottom he sank, 
 
 That poor Hebrew lad, 
 And the thirsty darkness drank 
 
 The light within him. 
 
 " Now all things go against me,'* 
 
 Said that poor sunk lad, 
 Earth-eaten, waiting to be 
 
 Eaten of famine. 
 
FIRST LECTURE. 
 
 Up through the earth-pit dreary, 
 
 Swung that poor sold lad 
 Into worse pit of slavery, 
 
 Arab, Egyptian. 
 
 " Still all things go against me," 
 Said that poor slave lad. 
 As sun-scorched, thought-scorched, through sea 
 Of sand he falters 
 
 To Misraim — to be bought, 
 
 (Ah, poor chattel lad!) 
 And wrought with the lash for nought, 
 
 Like soulless cattle. 
 
 O emir-sprung and petted. 
 
 Now sunk, sold, slave lad I 
 How is thy poor heart fretted 
 
 To cry, "Against me! " 
 
 " Against me ! yes, against me ! " 
 Not so poor blind lad ! 
 Where pain plies red beak on thee 
 Thy kingdom enters. 
 
 Fell pit and master anoin*^ 
 
 Thee Pharaoh, lad ! 
 Fell pit and master appoint 
 
 Thee chief sheaf — star prince 
 
 To sun, moon, and brother stars, 
 
 ( true dreamer lad ! ) 
 And brighter stars whose rays are bars, 
 
 Ruling Osiris. 
 
 So judge not by the seeming, 
 
 Faithward fighting heart! 
 The rod that leaves thee streaming, 
 
 "Will turn thy scepter. 
 
 If thou for true faith equipt, 
 
 Meet pit and master, 
 It shall sure crown thy Egypt, 
 
 Here and hereafter. 
 
II. 
 
 ARGUMENTATIVE METHOD. 
 
 'Erofyxot Se aet 7rp6<; aTroXoyiai/. 
 
 'Ek TOLavTr]<;, apa, 'Apx^P ^pTrjTaL rj cj)vaL<i. — ArisiotU. 
 
II. Argumentative Method. 
 
 I POSSIBILITY 
 
 ». PROPRIETY 3^ 
 
 |. PROFIT 
 
SECOND LECTURE, 
 
 ARGUMENTATIVE METHOD. 
 
 T HAVE spoken of the Experimental Method of 
 J- proving the Christian God and Scriptures — of 
 ts nature, mode of use, strictly scientific character, 
 and paramount place in a wise scheme of religious 
 evidences. 
 
 We come now to the Argumentative Method. 
 I ask jour attention to remarks on its Possibility, its 
 Propriety, and its Possible Profit. 
 
 Tlie possibility of logically proving God and 
 Scripture has sometimes been questioned on a pri- 
 ori grounds. On such grounds some persons have 
 questioned the possibility of proving anything by 
 argument — skeptics, who have doubted not only 
 that anything can be proved, but that anything can 
 be known, even the fact that we can know noth- 
 ing. The critical philosophers, so called, with Kant 
 at their head, without going so far as this, are still 
 decided that there can be no argumentative proof 
 of supersensible objects — that is, of objects not 
 directly cognizable by the senses, such as God 
 
30 SECOND LECTURE. 
 
 and religion — and of course no logical proof of 
 the Christian Scriptures as being God's message. 
 Still others, bearing such names as Fichte, Shelling, 
 Hegel — the Anti-criticalists, Idealists, and Pan- 
 theists, especially of Germany and France — declare 
 that there may be arguments to prove a God, but 
 none to prove such a God as the Christian Scrip- 
 tures teach, namely, a personal God external to the 
 hutnan mind and distinct from Nature. Well, a 
 God wlio is a mere idea, or the moral order of the 
 world, or the sum total of Nature, is no God at-all 
 to a truly English mind, and can issue no message. 
 
 It would be impracticable, in such a course of lec- 
 tures as I propose, to examine the grounds on which 
 these men rest their conclusions. Fortunately it is 
 not necessary. If a man should deny the possibility 
 of a good watch on abstract considerations, our 
 best method of dealino; with him would be to show 
 him such a watch. If some Dr. Lardner should 
 deny the possibility of crossing the Atlantic by 
 steam, the most satisfactory reply possible would be 
 to embark him in one of the hundred steamers 
 plying between the two hemispheres, and actually 
 transmit him to England by the impossible method. 
 So the best way of dealing with such speculations 
 as deny or doubt the possibility of good arguments 
 for God and Scripture is actually to produce such 
 arguments. This is the way in which the Baco- 
 nians effectively answered the old philosophy. Said 
 that philosophy, " A true science cannot be built 
 
POSSIBILITY. 31 
 
 up by experiment and induction : it must be done 
 by reasoning from general intuitions, and, " as some 
 said, " other general truths forming the original furni- 
 ture of the mind." This doctrine stood unfalteringly 
 against ag-es of skillful dialectics. And it was not 
 till the true philosophers turned from wasting time 
 and strength in logically combating this position, to 
 the task of actually building up the natural sci- 
 ences in the way pronounced impossible, that those 
 Platonists met their silencing refutation. What 
 could a Ptolemist say, with his eye at one end of 
 Galileo's tube and the phases of Venus at the 
 other? What could any philosopher of the old 
 stamp say, in the presence of the actual Astronomy 
 or Chemistry ; which, rooted in observation and ex- 
 periment, had risen in the course of a few years, by 
 mingled induction and mathematics, into such lofty 
 and wide-branching majesty of stature and fruit- 
 fulness as the old system had for some thousands of 
 years been always promising, and never even begin- 
 ning to accomplish ? There was no resisting the 
 eloquence of such examples. Yes, experimental 
 and inductive sciences doubtless can be, because 
 they are ; and so the Platonists amended their doc- 
 trine of the impossibility of such sciences into the 
 doctrine that they are a less noble and fruitful kind 
 of science than the German metaphysics. Let us 
 try to walk in the steps of those fathers of the In- 
 ductive Philosophy. Let us attempt no answer to 
 those w^ho deny or doubt the possibility of good 
 
32 SECOND LECTURE. 
 
 arguments for God and Scripture, save the actual 
 presentation of such arguments. If from the be- 
 ghining, and under the ablest hands, no such argu- 
 ment has ever been constructed, it would do little 
 good at this late day to estabhsh its abstract possi- 
 bility ; if one such argument can be actually shown, 
 all the cloudy speculation against its possibility will 
 meet the most evident and signal annihilation pos- 
 sible. 
 
 Besides these professional metaphysicians — as 
 they were for the most part — some eminent Chris- 
 tian theologians have denied the possibihty of a log- 
 ical basis for religion. Their ground has been two- 
 fold. Some have said that God and His written 
 message are as plain facts as any of our first princi- 
 ples, and consequently, according to well-known 
 law, can only be darkened by questioning and rea- 
 soning about their reality. Others state themselves 
 in this manner. Reason in man is a shattered in- 
 strument in shattered circumstances. It is so shat- 
 tered within and around that no reliance can be 
 placed on its verdicts on fundamental rehgious ques- 
 tions. Look at that seething chaos of opinions and 
 reasonings which from the earliest times has borne 
 the proud name of philosophy, and in which many a 
 great logician, '' floating many a rood," has lain be- 
 wildered — the puerile conceits, the muddy obscu- 
 rities, the gross contradictions and self-contradic- 
 tions, the stark absurdities, the terrible heresies, on 
 whose windy and yeasty bosom reputations and 
 
POSSIBILITY, 33 
 
 schools and systems have tossed, and collided, and 
 gone to pieces! The adv^enturous voyager, " through 
 the shock of fighting elements, on all sides round 
 environed, wins his way ; harder beset and more 
 endangered than when Argo passed through Bos- 
 phorus, betwixt the justling rocks, or when Ulys- 
 ses on the larboard shunned Charybdis, and by the 
 other whirlpool steered." Behold what the boasted 
 reason can do for the world — especially in radical 
 discussions ! See — its very name has fallen into 
 contempt ! Is such a guide to have our confidence ? 
 No ! say these theologians emphatically ; and they 
 feel themselves confirmed in their strong negative by 
 the manner in which the Scriptures speak of cer- 
 tain things called philosophies and wisdoms — de- 
 claring that the world by wisdom knows not God ; 
 that tlie faith of, christians stands not in the wisdom 
 of men, but by the power of God ; that men may 
 be spoiled by philosophy, and should avoid opposi- 
 tions of science falsely so-called. Their conclusion 
 is that the reason which some men deify is at best 
 but a fetich — that the true guide within the field 
 of fundamental religious doctrine is faith ; mean- 
 ing, not a belief in God and Scripture resting on 
 logical evidence, but one independent of such evi- 
 dence and supernaturally given to those to whom; 
 it is appointed, or who pray for it and honestly en- 
 deavor to follow conscience. This faith carries 
 men to the Bible and to prayer for that guidance 
 3 
 
34 SECOND LECTURE. 
 
 in opinions and practice which their dilapidated rea- 
 son is not qualified to give. 
 
 Men professing such views have not been very 
 numerous among Protestants. Once in a while, 
 however, they make their appearance. And in al- 
 most all our communities there is, I imagine, some 
 such vein of thought silently underlying a portion 
 of the casual reflection on this subject. But the 
 answer is easy. It is true that human reason is in 
 a fallen state, that it gives no absolute demonstra- 
 tions in questions not mathematical, that many of 
 those who have worn its uniform and carried its 
 banners have left a very humiliating history, and 
 that some of even its most gifted sons have in its 
 name played ofi:" most extravagant quixotism and 
 errantry of speculation. But how does one know 
 that this mortifying exhibition is not due, partly to 
 the impracticable nature of some of the questions 
 discussed, and partly to the improper method and 
 spirit in which most of them were examined ? Is 
 not the cause adequate to account for the result ? 
 But these impugners of reason, as employed on the 
 fundamental religious theory, have their positive 
 refutation in the examples and precepts of the Book 
 which they acknowledge as the final arbiter of 
 every question on which it pronounces. The Chris- 
 tian apostles argued freely with men in behalf of 
 both God and Christianity. Their habit was to go 
 into the temples, the markets, the synagogues, and 
 there argue for their cause with Gentile and Jew, 
 
PROPRIETY. 85 
 
 with atheist and infidel. Especially was this the 
 habit of that princely logician Paul, who, wherever 
 he went, plied the sharp edge of his remorseless 
 logic ; now in caviling Jerusalem on the scholars 
 of Gamaliel, and now in sneering Athens on the 
 scholars of Epicurus and Zeno. Who instructed 
 Christians in the midst of a Godless and Cliristless 
 age to be always ready to give a reason of the hope 
 that was in them — also to prove all things, hold- 
 ing fast that which is good ? The doctrine of the 
 first teachers of Christianity evidently was that 
 there is both a need and a reliable way of employ- 
 ing reason for- establishing the reality of God and 
 His message, and that the egregious follies and 
 blunders that sometimes occur in the course of the 
 logical process are to be set down, not against rea- 
 son itself, but against its mismanagement. 
 
 Among some who allow the possibility of an 
 argumentative method, it is still a question whether 
 such a method can properly be attempted in behalf 
 of faith. Many plain Christians are of this class. 
 They have a strong feeling against any logical re- 
 ligion. The sight of such a great body of it as 
 some European libraries show — thousands of vol- 
 umes from Plato downward, and displaying an 
 amount of genius, culture, and research vastly 
 more considerable than their number — such a sight 
 svould make on their minds an impression of prodig- 
 ious waste, to say the least ; waste of time, money, 
 pains, faculty. They have never felt the need of 
 
36 SECOND LECTURE. 
 
 such books. They are strong in faith — thanks to 
 early training and the experimental method — 
 without any help from such a quarter ; and it is 
 hard for them, with their very limited acquaintance 
 with the nature and extent of the attacks made on 
 Theism and Christianity, to realize that any persons 
 can require such help, or be at all the better for it. 
 Especially is their feeling strong against logical 
 Theism. They say that the Scriptures assume the 
 being of a God, and so should we ; that at heart 
 His reality is doubted by none, all show to the con- 
 trary notwithstanding; that, if there is any such 
 thing as sincere atheism in the world, it uniformly 
 began and solely rests in a bad state of the heart, 
 and so will not be reached by any mere logic, how- 
 ever conclusive and abundant. The same things, 
 mutatis mutandis, are alleo-ed ao;ainst logical Chris- 
 tianity, though with somewhat less emphasis and 
 prominence. 
 
 Do the Scriptures assume a God, and their own 
 binding authority as His message — at least so far 
 as argument is concerned ? In one sense, yes — 
 in another sense, no. It is not necessary to an 
 argument that it take the form of a syllogism, with 
 its major and minor and formally drawn conclusion. 
 It is enough that such facts and principles are 
 placed before the mind as seem to authorize, and 
 naturally lead the reason to make, the desired in- 
 ference for itself. This much the Scriptures do — 
 in behalf at once of both God and Revelation. They 
 
PROPRIETY. 87 
 
 attempt to show in themselves prophecies, miracles, 
 and supernatural adaptations of various kinds, from 
 which, if real, both Theism and Christianity are 
 directly inferable in one breath. In such informal 
 logic as this they may be said to abound. Further, 
 the Scriptures claim that Theism is sincerely re- 
 jected by " fools who say in their heart that there is 
 no God" — also, that Christianity is sincerely re- 
 jected by such men as Paul, who " verily thought 
 he ought to do many things contrary to the name 
 of Jesus of Nazareth." Indeed, if any reliance can 
 be placed on testimony and observation and the 
 ordinary laws of evidence, the cases of real unbelief 
 and even disbelief in a God, as well as in the Scrip- 
 tures, are by no means few. Many say they doubt 
 or disbelieve ; they do it with all facial show of 
 sincerity and self-knowledge ; above all, they act as 
 if they disbelieved. What better proof could we 
 have ? As to such doubt and disbelief, supposed 
 real, always finding its origin and support solely in 
 a bad state of the heart, this may be admitted 
 without admitting the inability of logical religion. 
 The guilty heart must operate to produce and sus- 
 tain the atheism and the infidelity by perverting and 
 blinding the intellect; and all the light and just 
 impulses we give the intellect are so much natural 
 opposition to this eflPect, and may even work back- 
 ward toward reclaiming the guilty heart itself. 
 Thus the oarsman works his way up the river 
 against the current ; thus some potent essence, or 
 
38 SECOND LECTURE. 
 
 heat, or sound creeps backward through the atmos- 
 phere agamst the wmd ; thus summer, beginning 
 at the lowest edge of the glacier, steals drippingly 
 and destructively upward till it reaches and melts 
 the very fount of the icy cataract and sows flowers 
 and perfumes around it. 
 
 Among those who admit the propriety of argu- 
 ment in behalf of Theism and Christianity, there is 
 great difference of opinion as to the amount and 
 kind of advantage possible from it. The expecta- 
 tions of some are enormous : the argumentative 
 method is both the " ttov (rroi " and the lever which 
 can move the world. The expectations of others 
 are exceedingly moderate; indeed, so very moder- 
 ate that they hardly .find sufficient motive to give 
 any thorough attention to the believing logic, from 
 whatever source it may come. I have thought it 
 desirable at this stage to state my own views on 
 this point — partly as a key to my method of treat- 
 ing my subject, and partly because I should deem 
 it equally unfortunate for any of you to come to the 
 actual arguments with expectations either extrava- 
 gantly large or extravagantly small, as to the ad- 
 vantages that may accrue from them. In the one 
 case you would be disappointed into discouragement 
 and an undervaluing of such utilities as may be 
 Sound belonging to the argumentative method ; 
 in the other you would enter on the subject with 
 too little interest to give it proper treatment. 
 
 I am disposed to claim great utility for the argu- 
 
PROFIT. 89 
 
 mentative method. But I do not suppose this 
 utihty to lie mainly in quarters where many would 
 naturally first look for it. It does not lie mainly in 
 its power by itself to convert atheists and infidels 
 into believers. Nor can any stress be laid on its 
 value as a means of weakening the unbelief of such 
 persons in the way of disputation with them. We 
 cannot even claim for it that it is the leading means 
 of sustaining and strengthening faith in God and 
 the Scriptures where such faith exists. We have 
 large admissions to make against logical religion 
 at all these points. It is found in experience that 
 religion is seldom proved to the satisfaction of men 
 by any merely logical argument whatever. When 
 men become theists, they not only generally become 
 such by a sort of proof that accredits to them Jesus 
 and the Bible at the same time, but this compre- 
 hensive proof itself is generally something besides 
 syllogisms, or what can be resolved into such. It 
 is the proof by the experimental method. It is 
 the proof bv the experimental and argumentative 
 methods combined and interleaved — that com- 
 posite method, like the student's classic, whose alter- 
 nate leaves of a richer texture than the rest and left 
 blank for that purpose, give in his own hand his own 
 personal thoughts and results ; that composite 
 method, like the illuminated missal, whose every 
 other leaf is pictured in silver and gold with the 
 thoughts and feelings more dimly expressed in the 
 nelo-hborlncr words. The man feels that his wants 
 
40 b£COND LECTURE. 
 
 are not met, that his nature is not fed, by infidelity 
 and atheism. He knows it safe and reasonable and 
 hopeful to renounce his sins. He begins to read 
 and act on the Scriptures as being a practical sys- 
 tem in at least general accord with his conscience. 
 He thus finds his way to prayer to a possible God. 
 And the result of all is that at length he discovers 
 himself to be in possession of a measure of faith. 
 Very likely he himself hardly knows how his mind 
 has reached this point ; very likely he has at- 
 tempted no formal study of Theistic and Christian 
 evidences — nor even consciously given them any 
 attention at all ; but in some way, certainly not 
 purely argumentative nor even chiefly so, his difii- 
 culties and doubts have noiselessly thinned away 
 like the foo;s and chills from some mornino; land- 
 scape. It is in some such way as this that unbeliev- 
 ers usually become theists aud christians. — And 
 it is the great way, too, of preserving and increasing 
 faith where it exists. The believer always intensi- 
 fies himself far more by conscientious acting than 
 / bj logical arguing. A day's careful discharge of 
 duty will do far more to heighten his sense of the 
 reality of God and of a Divine Scripture than w^ill 
 many a day's study of Paley, or any other writer on 
 evidences. Instead of being the great means of 
 producing, supporting, and increasing religious 
 faith of any kind, mere argument deserves no no- 
 tice in comparison with the easier and universally 
 applicable practical method. And, further, we must 
 
PROFIT. 41 
 
 confess that tlie mere argumentative method, when 
 applied in the* way of disputation, not only seldom 
 removes, but generally strengthens unbelief in our 
 opponent. Gladiators may conquer, but must not be 
 expected to convince. A blow from a steel-glove 
 rarely makes a man feel more amiably toward 
 either the person or principles of his antagonist. 
 The breaking of lances may be a very fine thing 
 to lookers-on and the victorious champion : but it 
 is a very uncomfortable and w^rathful thing to the 
 Templar, as he rolls in the dust amid the blare of 
 trumpets and the swarming glances of tier upon tier 
 of the valiant, the noble, and the fair. Will he 
 ever feel kindly toward the Disinherited Knight or 
 any of his belongings ? Do not expect it. Rather 
 expect to find him a more bitter Templar than ever. 
 And disputation with lips, no less than with lances, 
 whatever it may do for silent observers, may be 
 expected to confirm our opponent in his views, by 
 enhsting self-love and ambition and the passions 
 of conflict in their support — leading him to give 
 specially favorable atte^.ition to the plausibilities on 
 his own side, and specially prejudiced and carping^ 
 attention to the plausibilities on the other side. 
 
 These admissions must be made. But they are 
 by no means an admission of the small utility of 
 the arorumentative method. Its uses are real and 
 great, though not such in kind or degree as some 
 claim. Granted that there are such things as 
 sound scientific arguments in favor of God and the 
 
42 SECOND LECTURE. 
 
 Scriptures, there is a strong presumption, certainly, 
 that they can be made to serve some very vakiable 
 purpose : and something of a presumption, too, that 
 what so many great and good men — bearing such 
 names as Newton, Locke, Clarke, Berkeley, Whate- 
 ly, Miller — have deemed greatly useful, not to say 
 necessary, and on which they have expended such a 
 wealth of toil and culture and genius as likens them 
 to that Jupiter who is said to have once showered 
 himself on the world in the form of gold, is far from 
 being a vain thing. "And the presumption should 
 become a certainty to the christian when he finds 
 that his Scriptures teach him, both by apostolic ex- 
 ample and by precept, to be '' ready always to give 
 an answer to every man that asketh a reason for 
 the hope that is in him." But multitudes of chris- 
 tians have very little faculty for suitably bringing 
 up from the depths of their ©w^n minds the reasons 
 for believing which they actually possess. They 
 sit on the well ; there is water enough in it to sup- 
 ply Jacob, his children, and his cattle ; but they 
 have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. 
 And it is very desirable that science and scholar- 
 ship should come forward to put them into connec- 
 tion with their own abundant waters ; so that they 
 may pour them out freely at the curb-stone to re- 
 fresh, not merely themselves, but the ^veary and 
 thirsty men who are continually passing. 
 
 One use of the argumentative method is that it 
 will serve in many cases to withstand the decay and 
 
PROFIT. 43 
 
 fall of faith, especially in the young. Ingenious 
 men have started numerous objections and woven 
 numerous sophisms against the Christian Scriptures 
 and their God. Many of these are well adapted to 
 perplex and deceive the young and incautious mind. 
 They are perpetually turning up, covertly or openly, 
 in books, magazines, newspapers, popular lectures, 
 conversation. Almost every community, even in 
 New England, has some one or more, who, to the 
 extent of their influence, are confessed perverters 
 of the opinions of the young ; and pride themselves 
 on retaiUng wherever opportunity offers, the sneers 
 and arguments of prominent infidels and atheists. 
 No guardians, however careful, can prevent their 
 wards, as they come forward in life, from meeting 
 with these anthropophagi. And it is very desirable 
 that what cannot be prevented, should be prepared 
 for ; that the faith which tradition, aided by in- 
 stincts and casual observation and a certain uncon- 
 scious logic, has already established in multitudes of 
 the young, should be fortified in advance with well- 
 considered grounds of reason against the sophistries 
 they will have to encounter ; certainly, that there 
 should be within their reach at the time of danger 
 the natural antidote to the poisonous error in the 
 shape of its logical refutation. Of course the pre- 
 cautionary instruction is the best. And here that 
 great body of logical religion which scholars have 
 carefully digested and publislied to the world, com- 
 prising reasonings of all sorts and in all the moods 
 
44 SECOND LECTURE. 
 
 and tenses of thought and expression, will serve a 
 most valuable purpose. The Mentor of Telemachus 
 can go to this roomy Panoplon of all the Greeks, 
 and obtain from its endless variety just the argu- 
 ment adapted to the capacity and way of thinking 
 peculiar to his ward. And it will be received with 
 great freedom and held with great pertinacity ; 
 for, as yet, the young man is a believer. The 
 consequence will be that when in course of life he 
 falls in with the cavils and sophistries of unbelief, 
 however ingenious, his mind will suffer no per- 
 plexity and his faith receive no shock. It will not 
 become a leaning tower of Pisa. He will not be 
 the soldier brought to his knee by severe wounds 
 and loss of blood. His friends will have the satis- 
 faction of seeing the assailing darts, however deftly 
 and forcibly flung, rebound harmlessly from the 
 armor of proof provided in anticipation of such at- 
 tacks. Without such forearming they would have 
 seen him, not only in great risk, but actually 
 wounded, prostrate, and dead. 
 
 Moreover, it may properly be claimed that the 
 argumentative method will almost uniformly do 
 something to strengthen the Theism and Chris- 
 tianity of practical believers who will give it suita- 
 ble attention, especially those of-^the more intellect- 
 ual cast ; and such will be likely to give it attention. 
 No christian, however brawny his faith, can say 
 that it is as strong as it is desirable it should be, and 
 as it might be. He has merely a good beginning 
 
PROFIT. 46 
 
 of what admits and calls for indefinite improve- 
 ment. The more nearly his faith likens itself to 
 sight, and the Christian God and Revelation stand 
 forth to his mind as do the oceans and mountains 
 and stars, in their massive and inexorable reality, 
 the purer will be the heart he will bear and the 
 life he will lead. How shall his faith receiA^e this 
 needed enlargement ? I have repeatedly spoken 
 of the great method, that practical method, in com- 
 parison with which no other deserves a thought. 
 But there is another, of considerable independent 
 value in its place ; that of familiarizing the mind 
 with that wide variety of logic in behalf of the 
 fundamental religion on which have been expended 
 so much of the best thinking and expression of the 
 world. If one is already a believer, there is noth- 
 ing to prevent this sound argument from taking its 
 natural effect upon him ; he is predisposed to wel- 
 come it, and to give it due weight. Under these 
 circumstances, especially if his mind is of the more 
 thoughtful and investigating character, he will find 
 his study of the logical evidences giving his faith 
 new outspread and foundation. The Thesaurus 
 of logical religion has become an exceeding great 
 Nineveh, of three days' journey — has become hun- 
 dred-gated Thebes, able to send forth a myriad war- 
 riors from each gate. One is sure to find, somewhere 
 within its wide precincts and amid its metropolitan 
 resources what is suited to his peculiarity of habit 
 as a thinker and as a christian. Who has the. free- 
 
46 SECOND LECTURE. 
 
 dom of the national Commissariat will be sure to 
 find, among the prodigious stores of necessaries and 
 luxuries that crowd its roomy depots, something to 
 suit his peculiarity of appetite and constitution ; 
 who has the freedom of the national Mint, where 
 are piled up, in glittering stacks, tons of coins of 
 every precious metal and every denomination, can 
 surely find both change and capital enough for any 
 personal expense or reasonable business crisis that 
 has come upon him ; who has the freedom of the 
 national Arsenal, and looks around on the weapons 
 offensive and defensive, ancient and modern, foreign 
 and domestic, for siege and battle, for land and sea, 
 for officer and private, whose burnished steel and 
 brass — not to say silver and gold — mix their terri- 
 ble sheen from floor to ceiling, will surely be able to 
 generously accommodate his own idiosyncrasies of 
 enemy and campaign and strength and stature 
 and skill, whatever these may be. 
 
 It can also be said of the argumentative method 
 that, by Itself, it may often weaken and occasionally 
 overthrow atheism and infidelity. I say occasion- 
 ally. Observation seems to show that, while the 
 great experimental method must be chiefly relied 
 on to do this work, now and then a case of conver- 
 sion to intellectual Theism and Christianity occurs 
 under the mere pressure of argument. Such were 
 the cases of Galen, Thorpe, and Nelson ; and the 
 latter, in his " Cause and Cure of Infidelity," gives 
 several instances additional. It is well known that 
 
PROFIT. 47 
 
 the almost universal vinbelief in Yale College at 
 the beginning of the present century was com- 
 pletely overturned by the reasonings of its eloquent 
 president. So long as the unbeliever is disputa- 
 tious, so long as the spirit of prejudice and rancor 
 is active, the soundest and most victorious of argu- 
 ments will not take effect on him : but there are 
 certain opportune and critical moments, certain 
 Thermopylae-passages in his life, when conscience 
 and Providence have spurred up the mind to some 
 measure of candid thoughtfulness ; and, occasion- 
 ally, at such times the religious logic succeeds in 
 getting such a firm hold of the roots of unbelief as 
 enables it to dislodge the evil upas finally from the 
 mind. It does not take many such achievements 
 as this to pay for all the labor that has been ex- 
 pended in rearing and equipping the argumentative 
 method. 
 
 These several uses will be served by that method 
 considered as an independent agency. But its 
 great use is rendered, not as an independent agency, 
 but as an auxiHary to the practical method. It is 
 true that in order to the success, in a very consid- 
 erable degree, of this primary method, not a single 
 formal argument in behalf of God and Scripture 
 needs to be constructed. Every man is already, 
 informally, in possession of as much light fi'om that 
 quarter as is necessary to the successful working of 
 the test by experiment. At the same time the 
 operation of this method will be greatly faciHtated, 
 
48 SECOND LECTURE. 
 
 and carried forward to much larger degrees of suc- 
 cess than it could otherwise reach, if combined with 
 a patient attention to those arguments in which 
 many of the ablest thinkers of the world have given 
 the most apt and forcible expression to the rational 
 grounds of faith. Men generally need to be stimu- 
 lated to the faithful and persevering use of the ex- 
 perimental method. They are very reluctant, espe- 
 cially atheists, to put themselves on a strict course 
 of conscientious living. But an increase of their 
 suspicion that they are in error will help them to- 
 ward overcoming this reluctance ; and this increase, 
 as we have seen, a just consideration of the ample 
 logic is likely to give — a logic already ample, 
 but which may be made as much ampler as the 
 strata of Geology are ampler than your geological 
 cabinet. In the case of the atheist such just con- 
 sideration will, in general, o'nly be obtained in part 
 and with difficulty. But, if his well-wishers watch 
 their opportunity, they can find some time when the 
 spirit of prejudice and cavil is sufficiently inactive 
 in him to allow of his lookino^ at the Theistic aro-u- 
 ment with enough candor to greatly increase his 
 uneasiness and latent Theistic suspicions. And this 
 will be so much increase of pressure toward tliat 
 practical method with the aid of which, in all prob- 
 ability, his atheism must ultimately be overthrown. 
 Judiciously handled, our logical religion may be 
 made the great dynamical feeder to that experi- 
 mental method which is the world's main reliance 
 
PROFIT. 49 
 
 for faith. It is worth far more in this capacity than 
 as an independent agent. It will serve religion 
 much better by recruiting forces for another gen- 
 eral than by attempting to lead them itself. 
 
 The argumentative may also minister to the ex- 
 perimental method in another way. Besides fur- 
 nishing stimulus to use that method, it furnishes a 
 better measure of the material used in working It. 
 The conscientious acting goes to remove prejudice, 
 balance the judgment, rectify the purpose, suggest 
 love of the truth, and bring Divine assistance ; and 
 thus prepares the mind to take just and clear views 
 of certain facts and principles which are the ra- 
 tional grounds of faith. A certain amount of these 
 facts and principles must be had under even the 
 experimental method ; and this amount will get 
 supplied in connection with it without any con- 
 scious investigation. But it is desirable to have as 
 large an amount as possible : because the magnifi- 
 cence of the faith, if not its existence, depends on 
 the extent of the material as well as on its quality. 
 A tithe of the shapely blocks of white marble that 
 make up the cathedral of Milan would make a 
 veiy solid and beautiful structure; but still nothing 
 to compare with that august temple whose pinna- 
 cled and massive amplitudes now bear up three 
 thousand statues to gaze across the pictured plains 
 of Lombardy, up the white slopes of the everlasting 
 Alps. By means of the argumentative method, 
 ministering to the experimental abundant material, 
 
50 SECOND LECTURE. 
 
 every one may have a templed faith like the Duomo 
 of Milan. Whoever faithfully uses the method by 
 experiment shall surely have a solid and beautiful 
 sanctuary : but whoever, in addition to this, takes 
 pains to put into the hands of this first of builders 
 such precious and profuse material as the argu- 
 mentative method can quarry and hew from out its 
 vast Paros and Carrara, shall have a metropolitan 
 temple for his faith, a Te Deum in stone to which 
 angels shall delight to become pilgrims ; within 
 whose mountain of marble and beneath whose 
 dome sweeping grandly heavenward, he shall find 
 all climates equalized, and a secure and joyful home 
 as long as he lives. 
 
III. 
 
 APPLICATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ARGUMENTATIVE METHOD, 
 
 Kat S€VT€ 8t6A.€y;^^a)/xci/. 
 
 2c Tov AvTOcf>vrj, Tov TrdvTOiv cfivcTLV iiXTrXe^avO*. 
 
 Euripides. 
 
III. Application of the Argumentative Method. 
 
 I principles 57 
 
 2. thesis 59 
 
 J first objection — NATURA SUFFICIT .... 64 
 
 ♦, second objection — MACULuE ..-.,,. 67 
 
THIRD LECTURE, 
 
 APPLICATION OF THE ARGUMENTATIVE 
 METHOD. 
 
 TN the last Lecture I called your attention to the 
 -*- Argumentative Method of proving the Christian 
 God and Scriptures — to its possibility, propriety, 
 and possible profit. I now propose to begin the 
 application of the method. 
 
 Its successful application depends on the recog- 
 nition of certain principles, wliich, however plain 
 and however generally acted on iu other fields of 
 moral inquiry, are very largely treated with neglect 
 in this whole religious field on which we are now 
 entering. I shall therefore devote a small space to 
 their consideration. 
 
 What purports to be a moral truth presents itself 
 at our gate, and asks for admission. Of course we 
 have a right to ask for credentials. What sort and 
 degree of credentials ought we to be satisfied with 
 — at least so far as to grant the admission ? In 
 the first place, it is very plain that if we proceed to 
 demand anything of the nature of mathematical 
 
54 THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 demonstration, a demonstration involving the im- 
 possibility of the opposite of the thing demonstrated, 
 we shall demand- too much. Proof of this kind is 
 not possible in moral fields. We have not a single 
 moral conviction tliat rests on such evidence, and 
 never will have. We are now dealino; with a class 
 of ideas contradistinguished from those of quantity. 
 And yet almost everv man who holds out against 
 a God — as well indeed as almost every man who 
 holds out against Christianity, or who, admittino- 
 Christianity, holds out against any of the doctrines 
 commonly ascribed to it, or who, admitting these 
 doctrines, holds out against any of the duties it is 
 commonly supposed to enjoin — will insist on hav- 
 ing it proved to him, not that he is probably in the 
 wrong, but that it is impossible he is in the right. 
 " Prove to me," he says, " that antitheism cannot 
 be true." "Prove to me," he says, "that anti- 
 christianity is necessarily false." " You say this 
 is my duty: prove now," says he, "that the con- 
 trary is impossible in the nature of things." The 
 demand is preposterous. No moral truth can have 
 mathematical credentials. 
 
 Moreover, it is very plain that if we require in 
 behalf of such truth evidence that carries with it 
 moral certainty, we require altogether too much. 
 Not that such evidence is impossible or undesirable 
 witln'n this field. Still it is too much for us to re- 
 quire as the condition of believing. Has any master 
 of sentences, any standard of the art of reasoning, 
 
PRINCIPLES. 55 
 
 laid it down as a maxim that we are at liberty to re- 
 fuse belief whenever we can avoid believing ? Did 
 Newton, or Locke, or any other honest great thinker 
 since the world began, carry on his investigations 
 of a moral kind under such a rule ? Does any one 
 do it — save when he seems in danger of finding an 
 unpalatable truth ? Is this the rule men carry with 
 them into their politics and their business — reso- 
 lutely refusing faith in anything till they have been 
 allowed to put their fingers into the print of the 
 nails, and to thrust their hand into its side ? By no 
 means. Their politics and business would hastily 
 come to an end if they did ; and their whole neigh- 
 borhood would sneer at the impracticable men who 
 are forever insisting on moral certainties and dem- 
 onstrations, and will yield assent to nothing till 
 absolutely compelled by Hercules and his club — 
 that is to say, by an overpowering stress of argu- 
 ment. And yet almost every man who holds out 
 against a God, or against the Christian Scriptures as 
 His message — as well indeed as almost every man 
 who, admitting these, holds out against any of the 
 unpalatable doctrines or duties commonly ascribed 
 to them — will insist on its being proved to him, if 
 not that it is impossible he is in the right, at least 
 that it is certain he is in the wrong. When 
 reminded that there are no mathematics in any 
 part of the moral field, he feels entitled to remem- 
 ber that there are moral certainties. These are 
 what he wants. " Prove to me," he says, '' that 
 
56 THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 antitheism is surely false." ''Prove to me," he 
 says, " that the Bible is surely true." " You say," 
 says he, " that tliis is a scriptural doctrine, duty : 
 prove it beyond a doubt, and I will accept it as 
 such." This man, perhaps, is not to be blamed for 
 desiring evidence of the most convincing kind ; his 
 fault is that he must have this or none — that he 
 will only begin to believe at the point where he 
 should end, where faith, full-grown and fledged 
 like an angel, is in the act of becoming sight. It 
 would, undoubtedly, have been very pleasant to 
 the man who, for a mere trifle, had just purchased 
 an immense property in one of our Southern States, 
 if he could have had, in addition to the deed of the 
 recent owner, the fairly engrossed and broad-sealed 
 deed of the United States of America, flanked by 
 a certain constitutional amendment. But as he 
 could not have this, he was glad to take up with a 
 great deal less. He paid his half of one per cent, 
 on the value of that Chatsworth, and joyfully took 
 possession with nothing but that private deed in his 
 hand — hoping in time to have something better. 
 
 Further, it is plain that if we require for the 
 admission of a moral truth anything more than a 
 preponderance of evidence, we require too much. 
 What amount of evidence would be pleasing is one 
 thing: what amount puts us under obligation to 
 believe is another. Just as soon as, upon honest 
 inquiry, there appear more probabilities for than 
 against, then the foundation and obligation of faith 
 
PRINCIPLES. 57 
 
 are laid. We have no right to delay believing one 
 single moment. No matter how small the apparent 
 balance of likelihood is — though the equipoise of 
 the scale is disturbed by only a single grain — we 
 must yield our assent just as truly as though that 
 grain were a mountain. We are not, indeed, bound 
 to exercise the strongest kind of faith on such a 
 basis : but real faith, proportioned to the balance of 
 probability, we are bound to exercise. This is the 
 indisputable and undisputed scientific law of reason- 
 ing — statute and common law. Logic is bottomed 
 on this. It is both the soil that feeds its root and 
 the air that waves its branches. It is that which 
 men universally act on in affairs of business and 
 all secular life. It is what we must act on in our 
 religious inquiries, if we would treat religion and 
 the mental laws fairly. When a man declares that 
 he does not regard Theism and Christianity as suf- 
 ficiently substantiated, I say to him, " What is it 
 you mean ? Do you mean that they do not fairly 
 bristle with impossibilities of the opposite, like the 
 Principia of Newton and the M^canique C(^leste 
 of La Place ? " " Oh no," perhaps he replies, " I do 
 not suppose religion to be a science of magnitude, 
 and that souls operate and moral ideas stand related 
 according to the laws of quantity." '' Do you mean 
 that they do not stand forth to view and assent like 
 the solar orb in a cloudless day, so that none but 
 .he stone-bhnd will fail to see the glory?" "Oh 
 no," perhaj)s he answers, " T am not imiorant that 
 
58 THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 blank certainties are the exception under the pres- 
 ent scheme of life, that they properly end the 
 faith rather than begin it, that to make them its 
 indispensable conditions would ruin my present life, 
 and so might ruin my next, if there is such. No, I 
 am not so unreasonable as that. But this much I 
 do mean : I must have a broad, heaped, mass of 
 evidence ; the scale on the side of God and the 
 Bible must come down with a rapid and decisive 
 stroke ; my judgment must not be embarrassed 
 with a large array of counter-plausibilities. Is not 
 this reasonable ? " It would be reasonable for you 
 to be glad should moral truth happen to come to 
 you wdth such heavy and shining credentials — 
 broad-shouldered as an Atlas, and able on occasion 
 to bear up the very heavens ; but to say that it 
 must come thus or come in vain is playing the 
 tyrant with the first principles of a rational logic. 
 You may ask a preponderance of probabilities in 
 favor of God and His message as a prerequisite to 
 faith : this may be your due from scientific religion. 
 But if you insist on a jot more, you are unreason- 
 able. And yet almost every man who holds out 
 against God and His messao-e will insist on havino; 
 it proved to him, if not that it is impossible that he 
 is in the right, if not that it is certain that he is in 
 the wrong, at least that he is in the wrong by a 
 manifold and overawing balance of probability. 
 " Prove," he says, " that the plausibilities of the 
 atheist and the infidel, though accumulated and 
 
THESIS. 69 
 
 spread out to the utmost, can be co /ered and buried 
 fathoms deep by the plausibilities of the theist and 
 the cliristian — that \Yhile tlie idea of No-God and 
 No-Revelation has merely a hand-breadth of base, 
 that wliich underlies our current religion stretches 
 away over the whole rocky foundations of an empire 
 — and I will believe." It can be done; but shall 
 one who knows what scientific logic means presume 
 to demand so much as the conditionof believing? 
 
 Such are the principles with which one ought to 
 approach the application of the argumentative 
 method. I have asked vou to recollect them — not 
 because I wish to make the most of a little evidence, 
 but because I wish to make the most of a great 
 deal ; or, rather, because I wish you to do simple 
 justice to those Alps and Andes of evidence which, 
 almost uncounteracted, have, in connection with 
 the experimental method, bowed to the simple yet 
 majestic faith of children such minds as Boyle, and" 
 Locke, and Newton. 
 
 Our first concern is with the doctrine 
 OF 'God. And, by the term God, let us mean 
 simply an Eternal Being possessing power 
 
 AND intelligence BEYOND ALL CONCEPTION 
 
 greater than the human. 
 
 Such a Being I affirm to exist. At present 
 nothing is claimed about His unity, or character, or 
 government. Nor is it claimed that His power and 
 knowledge are absolutely infinite ; only that they 
 
60 THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 are practically shoreless to our tliought. This nar- 
 rowness of thesis, while it simplifies the discussion 
 to be undertaken, sacrifices nothing of result. The 
 man who gets convinced that there is an Eternal 
 Person who towers above men in might and wis- 
 dom further than thought itself can soar, passes easily 
 forward to a conviction of the Divine unity, the 
 Divine goodness, the Divine government, and the 
 strict illimitability of all the Divine attributes. 
 Enough momentum is acquired in going so far to 
 carry him much further. Really the battle is 
 gained for the entire Natural Theology. No in- 
 tellio-ent man of these days and countries would 
 think of making a stand at any other point after 
 this keep of his castle has been yielded. That high 
 central tower commands all the outworks. You 
 can sling a stone from it into every square foot of 
 the fortress. This is instinctively felt by the broad 
 intelligence of the nineteenth century. Accordinglj^, 
 there is not a theist in all Christendom who believes 
 in more than one God, or in a wicked God, or 
 in an ungoverning God, or in One whose natural 
 attributes are not substantially infinite. Whoever 
 beheves in Him at all, confesses Him to be the one 
 infinitely great and good Author and Ruler of 
 Nature. It was not always so. There was a time 
 when theists were pluralists. There was a time 
 when men believed in Ahriman — nay, in both Alu'i- 
 man and Ormuzd. There was a time when men 
 supposed that God wrapped Himself in His august 
 
THESIS. ^1 
 
 infinity, and stood contemptuously aloof from all the 
 affairs of men. But that time has long since passed. 
 Epicurus is dead. The Magians, and Manichees, 
 and Gnostics are all dead. To attack their opinions 
 is to attack corpses. To prove to a theist of this 
 late day that God is one, or good, or infinite, or 
 sceptered, is lost labor — save as it freshens an old 
 truth. The man admits it already. He is, at least, 
 " a modern deist." Whatever practical ignoring 
 of "the leadino; Divine attributes as tauijht in the 
 Scriptures he may displa}^, they are fully admitted 
 theoretically. So the task before us is simple. All 
 we have to do is to show that there is an Eternal 
 Person whose wisdom and power are indefinitely 
 greater than the human. Having this, as human 
 thinking now stands, we have all — we have the 
 unity, the goodness, the infinity, and the government 
 of God. Still it may be necessary to notice some 
 objections to these, as being in effect objections to 
 the Divine existence. 
 
 At the outset it is plain that God is intrinsically 
 possible. Personal beings are common objects : so 
 that if there is any insuperable intrinsic difficulty 
 in the way of the existence of a God, it lies in the 
 attributes of eternity and comparative infinitude of 
 power and knowledge which are ascribed to Him. 
 But at least one eternal and absolutely infinite 
 thing is known to exist, namely, space ; and there is 
 1© more difficulty in conceiving of an eternal and 
 infinite Person as being actual than of eternal and 
 
62 THIRD LECTURE, 
 
 infinite space as being so. Also, if there is no God, 
 there must be eternal matter with its eternal laws 
 — just as hard a conception as an eternal mind. 
 Also, on lookino; on one side of us down the long; 
 line of animated nature, we find it occupied with 
 beings in perpetually descending and mutually 
 approximating types till we come to such as are 
 infinitesimally small and rude — mere monads trem- 
 bling on the border land contested between the or- 
 ganic and the inorganic, between something and 
 nothing: shall any say it is impossible that the 
 line extends on the other side of us upward and 
 away among perpetually ascending and mutually 
 receding types of being, till, at last, by one pro- 
 digious Icaj), the geometrical series ends in a Being 
 inconceivably great and glorious ? Who has the 
 right to say that, of necessity, himself is tlie last 
 term of the series, or even the middle of it — that 
 it does not go on expanding above him like an 
 inverted pyramid of Cheops till the base of all is 
 reached in infinite God and heaven? What if 
 some rooted gelatinous polyp should assume to 
 pronounce in this manner — as it looks around the 
 mud-hole where it stands facile princeps^ and as it 
 follows downward with its nascent vision the graded 
 life that swarms through its sphere till it reaches 
 that infusorial mote which the microscope magnify- 
 ing sixteen millions of times has only just brought 
 to light — what if that polyp should assume to pro« 
 aounce in this manner ? 
 
THESIS. 60 
 
 Next, I proceed to say that the God who is in- 
 trinsically possible is on the whole probable. This, 
 according to the logical principles just stated, means 
 that whatever objections to the Divine existence 
 may be found are outweighed by the arguments for 
 it ; perhaps means that the arguments in the one 
 scale are zero, while those in the other are the entire 
 multiplication table. Let us see. 
 
 By fir the greater part of atheists do not claim 
 that there is any positive evidence against a God ; 
 they only maintain the insufficiency of the evidence 
 for Him. Their attitude is that of doubters, not 
 disbelievers. Nor am I able to find that any ob- 
 jections deserving of notice, besides the three follow- 
 Insr, are ever alleged or felt against the Divine ex- 
 istence, as admitted to be intrinsically possible. 
 
 The objections are these. 
 
 First., The miseries and moral disorders of the 
 world, together with such natural objects as go to 
 promote these. 
 
 Second., The absence of all overpowering mani- 
 festation of God in Nature and the government of 
 the world : or, at least, the absence of an irresistibly 
 universal faith in Him. " If there were a God," 
 says or feels the objector, " He M'ould so clearly 
 manifest Himself, or otherwise summon faith, as to 
 make doubt of His existence universally impossible. 
 But, instead of this, all is silence, invisibility, and 
 undemonstrativeness on the part of any such Be- 
 ing ; and while some disbelieve His existence, more 
 
64 THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 loubt it, and great multitudes have a faith trouble- 
 somely weak and unimpressive." 
 
 Third., The alleo-ed fact that all thinors which 
 need to be accounted for can be accounted for as 
 surely and well by purely natural principles as on 
 the supposition of a God ; in which case we are 
 positively required by reason and all scientific usage 
 to ascribe the facts to Nature rather than to the 
 suj)ernatural as their probable cause. 
 
 Here we have three objections. The last objec- 
 tion, however, should be thrown out for the pres- 
 ent. It really lies not against the existence of a 
 God — at the most only against a certain class of 
 evidences in His favor. What it means is that 
 certain material atoms, with their properties and 
 laws, will just as well explain the existence of, say 
 natural organisms, as will the hypothesis of a God. 
 In another place I shall formally deny this. At 
 present I have only to point out to you that were 
 the alleo;ed fact incontestable, it would not lie aiiainst 
 the existence of a God — at the most, only against 
 a certain class of evidences in His favor, namely, 
 that from natural organisms. Allowing that these 
 organisms can be produced with perfect ease by the 
 economies wrapped up in certain natural elements, 
 it follows, if you please, that organic Nature cannot 
 be ap[)oaled to as direct proof of the Divine exist- 
 ence ; but it does not follow that there is no other 
 proof to which we can successfully appeal — does 
 not follow, either surely or probably, that God does 
 
tVRST OBJECTION. — NATURA SUFFICIT. 65 
 
 not exist, or even that He did not actually produce 
 Nature in all its glorious outspread. You, with 
 your young muscles and hearts, are perfectly com- 
 petent to ascend Mont Blanc, and place your feet 
 on the very crown of that Alpine monarch ; but 
 this fact does not even make it probable that yoo 
 were ever in his neighborhood even. You have 
 never set eyes on his mighty slopes. You have 
 never even dreamed of doing so. And even if it 
 could be proved that at some time you have really 
 done feats fully equal to scaling that snowy miracle 
 
 — have really ascended mountains as arduous — 
 this would have no tendency to prove that you 
 have ever struggled up those formidable Savoyan 
 steeps. Even so, were certain natural elements quite 
 competent to produce the noblest organic wonders 
 that ever took the name of solar system or of man, 
 it would be no probability that tliey were actually 
 produced by these elements. But suppose it were 
 
 — suppose it abundantly proved not only that cer- 
 tain material elements are competent to organize 
 Nature as w^e find it organized, but that' they ac- 
 tually did thus organize it — what then ? Does it 
 follow that there is no God? At most, it only 
 follows that the organisms of Nature are not avail- 
 able as proof of Him. We are cut off from a cer- 
 tain class of evidences that have been much relied 
 on : that is all. Other evidences may exist. What 
 hinders that a God should make one of the coeter- 
 nities of Nature ; and, though not the author of it8 
 
 5 
 
66 THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 organisms, nor even of the primal elements from 
 which they proceed, stand among them and over 
 tliem from everlasting; to everlastino; as absolute 
 sovereign ? Nay, what hinders Him from being the 
 author of those very material elements whose won- 
 drous properties for combination and organization 
 have naturally peopled the heavens with sidereal 
 systems and the earth with the glories of vegetable 
 and animal life ? Absolutely nothing. We are 
 perfectly free to suppose that the whole verdant 
 tree of Nature roots itself ultimately in God — that 
 the famous questions of the origin of species and 
 spontaneous generation, of which unbelief in these 
 days is trying to make so much, are really but 
 questions as to modes and times of a Divine oper- 
 ation. Does God organize Nature with His own 
 hand through all these years and countries and 
 spaces, or did He, vast periods agone, launcJi into 
 being certain atoms dowered with all those subtle 
 affinities and laws which in process of time would 
 of themselves issue naturally in all the wondrous 
 mechanisms of nature — behold here the true di- 
 lemma with which the Darwins and the Lamarcks 
 threaten us ! This the chief of them profess. They 
 profess that their views are perfectly consistent 
 with Theism. They shoot not a single arrow any- 
 where in the direction of a God. Every shaft flies 
 exactly a quadrant away — neither for nor against. 
 Grant them all they ask, and it still remains perfectly 
 open to proof that a God exists, and even that He 
 
SECOND OBJECTION.— MACULE. 67 
 
 created and governs the whole august total of 
 Nature. 
 
 Settmg aside, therefore, the last of the three 
 objections, as having no claim to be considered at 
 this part of our discussion, liowever much it may 
 have at another part, let us revert to the first ob- 
 jection, that from the miseries and moral disorders 
 of the world. 
 
 Now, in regard to this objection, it ought to be 
 plain that, if it has any validity, it is not against 
 the existence of such a God as I now affirm, namely, 
 an Eternal Being of power and intelligence incon- 
 ceivably beyond the human. At the most, it is 
 only valid against a good God. A state of the world 
 checkered by sin and sorrow and deformity, is 
 surely not inconsistent with the existence of a 
 wicked Deity. It would not be out of character 
 for such a beinor to neo-lect us, to afflict us, to abuse 
 us to any extent or in any manner. Were the 
 world one vast torture-house^ and pandemonium, it 
 would still agree perfectly well with the presidency 
 of one who hates, or cares not for the holiness and 
 happiness of his creatures. Looking around the 
 dungeons of the Inquisition has no tendency to 
 draw into doubt the reality of tlie Inquisitor-Gen- 
 eral, wdiatever conclusions it may warrant as to 
 his sweetness and mercifulness. Looking around 
 on the debris of worn and crushed geologic peri- 
 ods never induces geologists to think of calling in 
 question the presence among them of some enor* 
 
68 THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 mous force : they only are put upon considering 
 whether that force is Plutonian or Neptunian. 
 
 This is my first answer to the objection from the 
 sins and sorrows and other maculae observable in 
 Nature. If it has any force at all, it is, at the most, 
 only against the goodness of God, not against His 
 existence. But really it has no force even against 
 His goodness. God may not only exist, but clothe 
 Himself with o-oodness as the sun does itself with 
 rays, notwithstanding the earth is confessedly 
 scorched and scarred with pliysical and moral evil. 
 I w^ish to show this for several reasons. It is well 
 to push the objection which has been so great a 
 trial to many still further from our thesis — so to 
 speak, out of sight of it as well as out of hearing — 
 and, as it were, make assurance of its invalidity 
 doubly sure. Does the son content himself with 
 merely turning off by the* smallest possible angle 
 the arrow aimed at his sire ? Does he not rather 
 with forceful and indignant blow smite it a whole 
 semicircle away ? 
 
 It may also be well to show the invalidity of the 
 objection as against Divine goodness, in order to 
 forestall a prejudice against accepting any God that 
 naturally arises fi'om supposing, or at least fearing, 
 that the God, when accepted, will have to be ad- 
 mitted to be a bad one. We all had rather have 
 /lo God than one destitute of goodness ; and this 
 feeling naturally stands in the way of the reception 
 of any logic, however conclusive, in behalf of a 
 
SECOND OBJECTION.— MACULE. 69 
 
 God which may have this enormous want. Another 
 reason, perhaps the most important of alL There 
 are many to whom it seems that an Eternal Being 
 of inconceivably great intelligence and power log- 
 ically implies a good God and abundant evidences 
 of Hhii, and that, consequently, any objection valid, 
 against His goodness is really valid against His ex- 
 istence. For the sake of such persons also — some 
 of them believers of the choicest kind — I desire 
 to go further, and show that the various evils, nat- 
 ural and moral, of the world are not against even 
 the Divine goodness ; are not, under the circum- 
 stances of the case, even the smallest presumption 
 on the whole that among the existences of the uni- 
 verse there is not One whose eternal years of 
 might and wisdom are auroral with the glories of 
 a perfect virtue. 
 
 Notice the following things. First, if God were 
 not strictly almighty, the limitation of His power 
 would sufficiently account for the evil observable 
 about us ; we should be quite at liberty to suppose 
 Him perfectly good. Second, if He were not 
 strictly omniscient, the limitation of His knowledge 
 would sufficiently account for the evil around us ; 
 and we should be quite at liberty to suppose Him 
 perfectly good still. Third, if these two limitations 
 were existino; together — and our thesis does not 
 assume the contrary — they would furnish us with 
 double the explanation required to meet the objec- 
 tion without giving up one jot from a perfect Divine 
 
70 THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 goodness. By giving np either the strict almighti- 
 ness or the strict omniscience, we can surely save 
 the goodness in all its entirety : by giving up both, 
 we can double, so to speak, the assurance of our 
 position. For my part, if compelled to choose, I 
 should prefer to allow that God is not quite meta- 
 physically almighty, or all-wise, or even neither ; 
 that although powerful and intelligent beyond all 
 human standard and thought, better equipped in 
 these respects than Zeus or Brahma was ever fa- 
 bled to be. His oceans of mio;ht and knowledo;e fall 
 somewhat short of being absolutely shoreless. But 
 this sacrifice is not necessary. A perfect Divine 
 goodness can be saved without it. And it seems 
 to me not hard to do it — especially in view of the 
 peculiar nature of virtue^ and of the manifest fitness 
 of an outward condition of irnperfection and sorrow 
 to a race of sinners. I ask you to emphasize this 
 last thought. Let it be the background on which 
 you project such facts as the following — not for the 
 purpose of exaggerating them, but for the purpose 
 of settino; them forth in all the truthfulness of na- 
 
 ture. 
 
 Notice what the aspect of the world really is. 
 We do not see exclusively sorrows, and sins, and 
 shadows. By no means. We see, besides, a vast 
 ieal of enjoyment — from mere comfort to rap- 
 ture ; from the obvious gayety of the mote in liis 
 sunbeam, up the long line of gamboling and singing 
 and smiling Nature, with its hundreds of thousands 
 
SECOND OBJECTION. — MACULE. 71 
 
 of known species, to the mighty joy of a man who 
 at least thinks he has gained the prize of eternal 
 life. In addition, we see an incalculable amount 
 of things fitted to give enjoyment — useful things, 
 delicious things, beautiful things, sublime things ; 
 things grateful to the touch, to the taste, to the smell, 
 to the ear, to the sight, to the soul ; pleasant Hghts 
 and shadows ; sweet perfumes and sounds ; golden 
 grains and fruits ; lovely features, forms, flowers, 
 gems, landscapes, motions ; glorious rivers and 
 cataracts and mountains and oceans and skies — 
 in throno-ino; hosts which no arithmetic can com- 
 pute. Further, mixed up with this natural good is 
 a great amount of such as is of a still higher na- 
 ture. No one is warranted in saying or believing 
 that there is a particle of sin in any of the animal 
 races below man. But there are many fair and 
 noble spiritual qualities revealing themselves in 
 numberless ways through these humbler but wide 
 domains — fair instincts, affections, gratitudes ; no- 
 ble endurance, courage, skill. And altogether, 
 within historic and our daily observation, there are 
 — generously sown through the world like star- 
 dust, and lighting up our atmosphere with all man- 
 ner of lights, from the atomic phosphorescence of 
 the fire-fly to the gayest November star-rain — 
 comely orders and proprieties, generous impulses, 
 charming amiabilities, graceful affections ; beauteous 
 industries, usefulnesses, purities, aspirations, hopes ; 
 exalted patiences, fortitudes, heroisms, loves, mag- 
 
72 THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 nanimities, moralities, consciences — above all, pur€ 
 solid Christian virtue in very many incontestable and 
 even glorious instances, the record of which thrills 
 us as we read ; also, in the case of every human 
 being, capabilities of a virtue of the most magnifi- 
 cent description, and far loftier than any that ever 
 actually pictured and glorified the historic page. 
 Further, it is observed that virtue has in its favor 
 the suffrages of all consciences, and, confessedly, 
 the general current of natural laws and events. 
 
 Now, this I say, that if you hold God responsible 
 for the sorrows, moral disorders, and other disad- 
 vantages of the world, it is but fair to give Him 
 credit for the happiness and virtue, and manifold 
 advantages of all sorts, that exist. If you debit 
 .Him with those dark things, you should credit 
 Him with these bright things. If the one class of 
 facts is allowed to argue against a good God, then 
 the other class must be allowed to argue in His fii vor. 
 And it is simply a question which party argues 
 loudest — the Red Roses or the White, the Guelphs 
 •ov the Ghibellines, the noes or the ayes. Who 
 is warranted in pronouncing that the noes have it ? 
 My ears have not discovered it, nor have yours, 
 nor yours ; least of all — those of the objecting 
 atheist. Confessedly, the happiness of the world 
 is far greater than its sorrow : almost every living 
 creature has a thousand moments of comfort to one 
 moment of pain. Existence, as it is, is almost uni- 
 versally considered a blessing, and so much of a 
 
SECOND OBJECTION.— MACULJE. 73 
 
 blessing that not one in a thousand but would a 
 thousand times prefer living on, with his average 
 lot as to happiness, to being dismissed into annihila- 
 tion painlessly, or even bj way of paradise. Con- 
 fessedly, the noxious things, the deformed things, 
 the things that wound the senses and the sesthetical 
 nature, bear no sensible proportion to the useful, the 
 comely, the gratifying things that be-green and 
 be-blossom this beautiful world. Let every man 
 look ^bout and judge for himself. Atheists not 
 only confess, but profess it. They are forward to 
 claim great things for Nature : she is to them the 
 one worshipful Alma Mater : they practically deify 
 her and her laws. Confessedly, there are through 
 the multitudinous races below man more orders 
 than disorders, more proprieties than improprieties, 
 more things that are comely and useful in disposi- 
 tion and instinct and habit than there are things of 
 apparentlj^ the opposite character. I suppose no 
 naturalist of standing, whatever his religious views, 
 would for one moment think of calllno; this in 
 question. An open profession of it, on the con- 
 trary, in terms enthusiastic and almost poetical, dis- 
 tinguishes the chieftains of natural history. It is 
 true that when we come to man — if we take the 
 Bible-microscope and the Bible-micrometer for in- 
 specting and judging the hearts of men, and not 
 otherwise — we find more sin than holiness ; but 
 then we find by the side of what goodness does ex- 
 ist, and assisting most heavily to bear down its 
 
74 THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 scale, this more than fairly offsettii^g great fact, 
 namely, that the general constitution of Nature, 
 and all human consciences without exception the 
 world over, are founded and immovably continued 
 from age to age in the interests of virtue. I say 
 this more than fairly offsetting fact, especially in 
 view of the essentially free nature of virtue. But 
 from the stand-point of the objecting atheists the 
 case is still clearer. These are the men who have 
 never accepted the Christian view of the corruption 
 of human nature, nor the Christian view of the 
 nature of virtue. These are the men who have 
 constituted themselves professors of the dignity of 
 <human nature and of the innocence of childhood 
 — men with whom every amiable instinct and 
 graceful propriety and pleasing amenity passes for 
 solid holiness — or rather,^ men with most of whom 
 there is no such thing as sin, only misfortune or 
 contrariety to public opinion ; that is to say, no sin 
 but pain, and no holiness but pleasure. According 
 to these views, the world is just as fair morally as it 
 is physically and in its relation to happiness. 
 
 This, then, is the state of the case, especially ac- 
 cordincr to the objector's own showing: on the one 
 side much, on the other side more — on the one 
 side ten suffrages, on the other ten thousand — on 
 the one side a good God negatived by a chorus of 
 tears and sighs from the night, on the other 
 affirmed by a much grander chorus of smiles and 
 sjongs from the day. What right has any man to 
 
SECOND OBJECTION. — MACULAE. 75 
 
 favor the vanquished night-side of Nature ; and 
 record judgment, not only in defiance of charity, but 
 in defiance of the logic of testimony ? " What right 
 has he to balance the books against a good God, 
 v^hen really there is a large balance to His credit, 
 accordino; to the observation of all discernino; men ? 
 He has none, and stands by the side of the man 
 who hearkens more to the spots on the sun than to ^ 
 the sun itself. 
 
 Now, suppose a mind brought to this stage should 
 suddenly become clairvoyant as to the future of this 
 world, and discover a little in advance a golden 
 age luifolding itself in every land and among every 
 race of creatures — the new reign of Saturn, the 
 sabbath of geologic periods, the tenth avatar of 
 Brahma, and the millennium of Christ — say, if 
 you please, a thousand years whose every day is a 
 year, 365,000 years : and through all this mighty 
 era those three matchless graces, holiness, happi- 
 ness, and beauty triumphantly and universally 
 reioiiino; and even the entire menag-erie of Nature 
 bathing itself in the mellow glory. Suppose, still 
 further, that after he has sufficiently familiarized 
 himself with the vision of this earthly elysium, 
 and has just passed to and mastered the fact that, 
 with a slight and relatively altogether insignificant 
 break, this happy period shall everlastingly con- 
 tinue — suppose that another and still higher clair- 
 voyance succeeds. His view is no longer confined 
 ;o this earth. His eye has the freedom of the 
 
76 THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 starry spaces. It sends glance outward and out- 
 ward to find the voids peopled with worlds in such 
 prodigious numbers and magnitudes that, in com- 
 parison, the great outspread of earth is but a 
 point. What unspeakable legions, all cased in 
 golden mail, go wheeling and charging and storm- 
 ing through the routed empires of Night and Noth- 
 ingness ! What infinite, infinite armadas, with 
 flashino: banners, bear down the reaches of that 
 endless ocean — and behold all, with scarcely an 
 exception-, freighted to overflowing with beauty and 
 goodness and bliss, as some gushing sunset cloud is 
 freighted with the dolphin hues of the dying day ! 
 And he sees that the whole area flecked with sin 
 and pain and various evils is comparatively but a 
 fluxion of the last order, a microscopic dot on the 
 white page of universal Nature. I say, suppose 
 some second-sio'ht could discover to him all this — 
 should become the successful whipper-in of all its 
 roving members to that august natural parliament 
 in which the question of a good God is just now 
 pending — bringing up substantially all space and 
 all duration to add their voices to that large ma- 
 jority which on the earth utter affirmative suffi'age 
 — what would be the result ? Would not the seven 
 thunders of the ayes completely drown the noes 
 in his ear ? Ought they not ? 
 
 Now, who is authorized to say that an actual can- 
 vassing of duration and space would not discover 
 substantially all this ? Not a man. Traditions favor 
 
SECOND OBJECTION. — MACULE. 77 
 
 a golden age to come as well as a golden age past. 
 " Jam redit et vIrgo, redeunt Saturnia regna." The 
 rapidly advancing sciences and arts and comforts 
 of men point in the same direction. The magnifi- 
 cent faculties for virtue and happiness which every 
 man consciously possesses — also actual examples, 
 sometimes found, of individuals, families, and com- 
 munities already well-nigh bright enough in every 
 respect to enter into the composition of a paradise — 
 look the same way with still greater steadiness and 
 majesty. And then, what means the far superior 
 aspect of most of those foreign worlds which sail 
 so brightly and joyfully, and, many of them, with 
 such marvelous glory, through the field of the tel- 
 escope ? Does that rainbow-bouquet of orbs in the 
 Southern Cross, or that great cluster in Her- 
 cules which sails in such heavenly pomp across the 
 field of our telescopes, positively discourage you and 
 bid you think of abodes of sin and sorrow ? Oh, 
 no. They are a positive encouragement. They 
 suggest a fairer state of things than we have here. 
 They assert a possibility, they venture a prediction, 
 they turn their faces hopefully toward the sun-ris- 
 ing ; and, as we dimly look upon them, we imagine 
 we see their features already beginning to light up 
 with the flush of coming day. It is not from such 
 facts that a Baconian infers discouragement. If he 
 does it at all, it is 'from the evils seen in this world. 
 But would a savage on the most barbarous South 
 Sea island, after looking about his narrow home and 
 
78 THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 observing what obtains there, be warranted in say- 
 ing that, on the whole, probably all the rest of man- 
 kind are savages and cannibals, or that any of 
 them are ? Would a child living in the most dilap- 
 idated hut in Ireland, after looking about on its 
 ruins and its rags, be warranted in saying that it is 
 more likely than not that all the other dwellings of 
 the world are as poor as his own, or that any of 
 them are ? Would a trilobite, after looking about 
 his native marsh, be entitled to say that, more 
 likely than not, nothing better than trilobites would 
 ever appear in the world, or even that a single true 
 trilobite would ever exist out of the Silurian ? 
 
 If I have accomplished what I attempted, I have 
 shown that the objection from the sins and sorrows 
 and other shadows of the world does not lie against 
 my thesis at all ; that it is at a threefold remove 
 from being pertinent even against the doctrine of 
 a good God ; that if it were intrinsically available 
 for this purpose, it would still be balanced, heavily 
 overborne, and, not improbably, completely sunk 
 below the horizon by the actual state of facts in 
 this beautiful and even gorgeous universe that sur- 
 rounds us. 
 
IV. 
 
 MACULE. 
 
 lIo<rta fxaXXov 6 Uarrjp 6 i^ ovpavov. 
 
 Qs raXX* ttTravra Sevrcp' T^yetrai liarrjp Zeus. 
 
 SophocUt, 
 
IV. Maculae. 
 
 1. SECOND OBJECTION CONTINUED 
 
 2. PATERNAL ANALOGIES 
 
 3. LAW OF THE INFINITE . 
 
 4. LAW OF CONSCIENCE 
 
 5. LAW OF PATERNITY . 
 
 6. LAW OF CHARITY 
 
 7. LAW OF THE GENERAL RULE 
 I. TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT . 
 
 81 
 83 
 
 99 
 
 lOI 
 
 103 
 106 
 108 
 l>4 
 
FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 MACULE. 
 
 TN the present state of religious thought, all ob- 
 jections to the goodness of God make directly 
 ao-ainst His existence. On this account I have 
 taken pains to show that the maculae of various 
 kinds observable in Nature, are very far removed 
 from being a valid objection to the Divine goodness. 
 
 This subject is so extremely important — the idea 
 of possible malevolence in a Being of substantially 
 infinite powers operates so powerfully to prejudice 
 the mind ao;ainst admittino; His existence — that I 
 propose to enlarge my answer still further. I pro- 
 pose to show that, despite all stumbling-blocks, the 
 state of facts is such that, if we assume God to 
 exist as the Author and Ruler of Nature, we are 
 bound by Baconian science to admit not only His 
 lovincf-kindness but a lovino;-kindness that is in the 
 highest degree paternal. If He is at all. He is 
 tenderness itself. If He is at all, never did sire so 
 yearn over son as God yearns over all His crea- 
 tures. 
 
 Let us, then, temporarily assume a God who is 
 6 
 
82 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 tlie source of being to all other beings. Lo, the 
 All -Father ; lo, the Pater Mnndi I More broadly 
 and fundamentally than ever was man the father 
 of a human child, is God the Father of all things, 
 small and great, unintelligent and intelligent, life- 
 less and living, that people with their countless 
 swarms the universal round of space — Father of 
 the very primary elements, and basal substance of 
 all thino-s — Father of all natural chemical and me- 
 chanical combinations of these — Father of all nat- 
 ural structures ; of the man ; of the brute ; of the 
 plant ; of the stone, whether as a jewel, a stratum, 
 or a world Everything in Nature belongs to His 
 family. Stars and souls are His children ; the 
 veriest insects and motes as well. You are His son, 
 and so is the worm under your feet, as well as that 
 atom of dust which the worm crawls over. There 
 is not a thino; which has not occasion to send 
 heavenward its Pater Noster. 
 
 Let this be admitted. Then you are to observe 
 that human beincrs are mere infants relative to this 
 Heavenly Father. The greatest specimens of 
 adult human nature ever seen ; the men of broad- 
 est faculties, of widest information, of highest cul- 
 ture ; the most famous scholars, statesmen, philos- 
 ophers, geniuses — even such men as these are 
 merest infants relatively to their Infinite Father. 
 Compared with His faculties, what are those of a 
 Newton or a Pascal ! Compared with His knowl- 
 edge, what is that of a Leibnitz or a Humboldt! 
 
PATERNAL ANALOGIES. 83 
 
 Comjoarecl with His accomplisliments and feats of 
 many names, what are those of admirable Crichtons 
 and Sidneys and Cids ! Mere nothings, surely. 
 When I say that they are infantile, when I liken 
 these so-called great men to the little children that 
 creep and totter about our human homes, I cer- 
 tainly may be considered to speak with great mod- 
 eration. We all know it an under-stafement of the 
 truth. So far from being hyperbole, it falls wonder- 
 fully short of expressing the actual facts. 
 
 Men are God's Infants. And we ought not to be 
 stumbled at finding tliem receiving from their Great 
 Father what Is found in onr common household 
 experience to be wise treatment for little children. 
 I mean that such treatment as a wise human father 
 finds necessary for or adapted to his very dear lit- 
 tle children, it should not stumble us to find allotted 
 by God to these very little children of His, adult 
 men. 
 
 See how He treats us ! 
 
 See, first, that we do not have all our wishes 
 granted. How well do we know this ! Why, It is 
 only here and there one, among the multitude of 
 our cravings, that God suffers to be gratified. Man 
 is " a bundle of wishes," but he neither receives 
 nor expects the fulfillment of the thousandth part 
 of them. Let us confess it ; had a chronicle been- 
 carefully kept of all the crude wishes that have 
 flitted throucrh our minds from day to day, we should 
 not only be mortified at the quality of many of 
 
84 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 them and astonished at their number, but we should 
 also be both mortified and astonished at the very 
 small proportion of these blossoms which have 
 ripened into fruit. — Well, it is but the case of the 
 very little child in the hands of a wise and tender 
 earthly father. Does he give his children every- 
 thing they want — the little tottering, unreasoning, 
 inexperienced, visionary things ! He knows better 
 than to do that. He has too much good sense and 
 regard for his children to do that. He allows them 
 to wish in vain for many a pernicious indulgence 
 which he could easily give them if he thought best ; 
 even stoutly withholds such things from their tears 
 and prayers. And when they have grown up they 
 will be thankful to him for his wise and kind ob- 
 stinacy. Is not God wise and kind after the same 
 manner ? Though we are men as compared with 
 children, we are children^ infant children, as com- 
 pared with God. And not one in a thousand of 
 our crude fancies as to what would be good for 
 us is He disposed to fulfill. Perhaps He loves us 
 too well. Perhaps He is too wise to do so foolish 
 a thing, though our hearts cry bitterly unto Him 
 for it. 
 
 See, second, that tve are positively stricken as well 
 as denied. Not only do we fail of having all that 
 we wish — we also receive positive correction, chas- 
 tisement, stripes. What man that lives is without 
 his trials ? What man that lives does not die — such 
 's the hard word wo use — driven out very painfully, 
 
PATERNAL ANALOGIES. 85 
 
 perhaps, Into the cold and dark ? Losses, cross. t — 
 who has not looked many forms of such things in 
 the face ; nay, taken them firmly by the hand ; 
 nay, most reluctantly embraced them as men em- 
 braced the thorny Mater Dolorosa of the Inquisi- 
 tion ? Is God therefore un paternal ? Is our case, 
 after all, so very unlike that of other children ? 
 What son is he whom the judicious father chas- 
 teneth not ? Does any wise parent neglect to 
 act on that old-world injunction, " Correct thy son 
 while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his 
 crying? " Nay, the rod is not spared in any well- 
 ordered household, in order that the child may not 
 be spoiled. Sometimes, even his home Is broken 
 up, and he is sent out, sorely against his will, into 
 what he considers the stormy cold and dark. He 
 weeps, he wails, he suffers — suffers apparently as 
 much as the man with his manly troubles. It is 
 most touching, those distressful tones and features 
 and contortions with Avhicli the little one shrinks 
 back from what the parent decides must be done. 
 " Poor child ! " says the heart of the bystander. 
 *' Poor child ! " say much more the softer hearts of 
 sisters and mothers ; and the moisture gathers fast 
 in their eyes as they look on. It would be hard 
 to show that yon yearling, drenched In tears and 
 piteous exclamations, Is not suffering as much as 
 most dying men. Yet his father is firm. He carries 
 throngh his plans as a business man, his plans as a 
 household providence, his plans for training that 
 
86 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 particular child, without bating one jot. tie trans- 
 fers him from one school to another, from one physi- 
 cian to another, from one home to another ; albeit 
 it must be through a night of lowering looks, a sharp 
 east wind of expostulations, and a free rain of tears. 
 Is this treatment anything against the affection of 
 the parent? Does any reasonable person conclude 
 that firm father to be either cruel or injudicious ? 
 Perhaps every sensible, experienced man would 
 think him cruel and injudicious if he should neglect 
 that, for the present, painful discipline. — Now what 
 are these grown-up men about us but merest chil- 
 dren before God ? And when we find the Heavenly 
 Father correcting them after the manner of earthly 
 fathers — a manner that we justify and even confess 
 to be required by an enlightened and wise tender- 
 ness — '^^'hy do we lift our eyebrows with complain- 
 ing wonder ? Is it any more than the usual treat- 
 ment of well-loved and wisely managed little ones ? 
 See, third, that lue have tasks a?id burdens put 
 upon us wJiich^ doubtless^ God could spare us, so far 
 as mere p)Ower is concerned. Cares, watchfulness, 
 pahiful inquiries, various true work of body and 
 mind, personal sacrifices of strength and time and 
 property for the good of others — such things are 
 imposed, sometimes very largely, on all our men 
 and women by the present scheme of Divine Provi- 
 dence. — Well, is not this the way little children 
 are accustomed to be treated by wise and tender 
 fathers ? Do not such fathers aim to accustom their 
 
PATERNAL ANALOGIES. 87 
 
 children gradually to effort of body and mind — 
 to think, plan, take care, conquer obstacles, bind 
 themselves to diligence and order, task themselves 
 at schools, ply various odds and ends of manual 
 work about the house or the farm or the shop 
 — true tasks and burdens, all of them, to child- 
 hood ? These little burden-bearers are warmly 
 loved. Pecuniarily, perhaps, their parents could 
 afford to allow perpetual holiday. But they are 
 too sensible and experienced and intelligently 
 affectionate to do an}^ such thing. Those children 
 must have character. They must be prepared for 
 a useful and honorable maturity. So they must 
 bear the yoke in their youth. And those kind 
 parents,' without hesitation and with the high ap- 
 proval of all experienced lookers-on, proceed by de- 
 grees to impose that yoke according to the day and 
 the strength of the little children. — Now, what 
 are these grown-up people about us but so many 
 merest children before God? And when we find 
 their Heavenly Father laying upon them — laying 
 upon us — tasks to do and burdens to bear which 
 His almightiness could well spare us, in case it 
 were good for us to be spared, shall we behave as 
 though we have fallen on a very mysterious and 
 stumbling state of things, a state of things that must 
 be laboriously cleared up by besoms of both logic 
 and faith before we can admit our God to be wise 
 and kind ? He, too, has the character of His chil- 
 dren to look after. He, too, has their honorable 
 
88 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 and useful aud happy future to provide for. Are 
 we any better than Httle cliildren in His presence ? 
 Why should He not give us the usual treatment of 
 well-loved and wisely managed httle ones ? 
 
 See, fourth, that we are always required to ohey^ 
 often tvithout reasons assigned. Persons of ripe and 
 even hoary years are not allowed to have their own 
 way. The laws of the land say. No. Above all, the 
 laws of God say, No. Bearing down most compre- 
 hensively on th6 lives and even the thoughts and 
 feelings of the oldest and best developed among us, 
 the laws of Nature, with their penalties, bring us the 
 Divine washes in unmistakable accent of command. 
 Ye shall — ye shall not. No matter if we are 
 kings, we must obey. No matter if we are sages, 
 we must obey. No matter if we are venerable 
 patriarchs, we must obey. Nor are reasons in full 
 always given us for these commands. Sometimes 
 there is only the simple expression of the sovereign 
 Divine will. It is purely a case of unexplained 
 and unexplainable authority. We cannot see why 
 the law was established. So God has chosen; this 
 is all we can say of the matter. — Well, in this re- 
 spect we are treated like little children ; as ^ye arc, 
 before God, though our locks are silvered with age 
 and wisdom. Are not wise and kind parents wont 
 to insist on obedience from their little ones ? Are 
 they always careful to give intelligible reasons for 
 their biddmgs ? Obedience is the fundamental 
 principle of all thrifty rising households. Rever- 
 
PATERNAL ANALOGIES. 89 
 
 ence for parental authority, as such, is required. 
 The narrow inteUigence and experience of child- 
 hood cannot always have matters explained to them, 
 but must learn to do things simply because the 
 parent wills them. Do I bring certain strange 
 things to your ears ? On '{^le contrary, are they 
 not things that have been generally understood 
 among thoughtful persons from the foundation of 
 the human world ? Do we blame these parents 
 who insist on being obeyed ? Do we pity these lit- 
 tle children who must submit to authority ? Not 
 at all We blame the parents and pity the chil- 
 dren if other principles are allowed. We know 
 that both parties are in a fair way to ruin. And 
 when God, our Heavenly Father, puts us who are 
 called adults, but who are nothing more than little 
 children before Him, upon a regimen of obedience, 
 and strenuously insists upon it that, instead of doing 
 as we please, we shall go by rules of His providing 
 — sometimes unexplained rules — shall we wonder 
 as if we had never heard of such things being done 
 before by the kindest and wisest of parents ? Shall 
 we feel aggrieved and sore as to rights and liberties, 
 as though we have not been heartily approving and 
 commending, every day of our lives, just the same 
 treatment of other little children by their earthly 
 parents ? What are we, grown up-men and women 
 as we are — what are we but merest children before 
 God? 
 
 See, fifth, that ive are Jcejyt in a state of close de- 
 
90 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 pendente on Grod, and under a necessity fur daily 
 appealing to Him for siqjport^ information^ and guid- 
 ance. You know how the Christian Scriptures put 
 our case. It is God who really provides for us 
 everything we have. He gives us our daily bread. 
 He clothes us, as well as the grass of the field. 
 Our education, our substance, our enjoyments, our 
 honors ; in short every good and perfect gift, is from 
 above, from the Father of liorhts. What have we 
 that we did not receive ? All things come of Thee, 
 and Thou givest meat unto all : and unto Thee 
 shall all flesh come I So we are to go to Him for 
 everything we want — for the daily bread, the wis- 
 dom that we lack, guidance in the path we tread ; for, 
 O Lord, it is not In man that walketh to direct his 
 steps ! Absolute and perpetual dependence on the 
 Heavenly Father for everything, and a daily look- 
 ing to Him for everything — this is the law of life 
 to all of us, even the strongest and highest and 
 proudest and most self-contained of our men and 
 women. Now suppose this Bible account of our 
 dependence to be the true account. What then ? 
 Is it a very stumbling matter, even to freedom- 
 idolizing Americans ? See how the little child 
 hangs on his father's hand for everything ! Every- 
 tlilng is provided for him. Hector takes care in 
 all directions ; and whether the puny Astyanax is 
 to be fed or clothed or instructed, it is the parental 
 forethought and busy ministering hand that oppor- 
 tunely meet the needs of every passing day. The 
 
PATERNAL ANALOGIES. 91 
 
 child has nothing that is strictly his own. For what- 
 ever he wants he has to go to another. So from 
 morning to night he is saying in fatherly ears, " I 
 am hungry; I am thirsty — what is it; may I have 
 this or that ; may I not do this or that? " In short, 
 the father is the treasury to which the child looks 
 and from which he draws, under such limitations as 
 that father chooses to impose, every hour of the day. 
 No property in stock is put into his hands from 
 which to supply himself. From hour to hour he 
 must appeal to the judgment and bounty of the sire. 
 This is the law of our households, of the wisest 
 and kindest of them. Is tliere any thing unreason- 
 able in this, considering what little children are ? 
 Anything oppressive, harsh, unduly exacting, unnat- 
 ural, considering what little children are ? To be 
 sure, there is not very much liberty, independence 
 — as men sometimes use these words — in it; not 
 very much of the principle expressed in such words 
 as, " I do not care for you," " I am as good as any- 
 body ; " but there is fitness, order, safety, and a 
 chance for happiness, usefulness, and religion in it. 
 Who thinks the worse of a father for binding up 
 his ignorant, inexperienced, incautious, and way- 
 ward child in such a system of daily dependence 
 and appeal ? You think the better of him for it. 
 You w^ould heartily condemn his lack of judgment, 
 were he to take a different course. Is the man in- 
 sane ? Does he know anything whatever of the 
 nature, tendencies, and interests of little children "^ 
 
92 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 — Well, what are we, grown-up people, but little 
 children Godward ? And why is it not in the 
 highest degree reasonable that our Heavenly Father 
 should make our narrowness and inexperience hang 
 daily and liourly on His wisdom and goodness for 
 supplies, and should require us to go to Him with 
 our asking for whatever we want ? If this is a 
 bondage, it is such a bondage as sensible men know 
 is natural and necessary to the condition of little 
 children. Little children cannot do without it. 
 Their liberty has to be sacrificed to their safety. 
 
 See, sixth, that lue are not told of all the Divine 
 affairs ; that those we are told of are often allowed 
 to seem inexplicable^ unwise., and even uiirighteous., 
 especially to first glances. Men sometimes complain 
 because the Christian Scriptures are so silent on 
 many points of curious and interesting inquiry. 
 Much more show of reason have they to complain 
 of the silence of Nature. Well, it is true that God 
 does not see fit to answer all our questions, even all 
 our theological questions. Some of His matters He 
 keeps wholly to Himself. Others, of which we 
 are allowed glimpses, are far from being well 
 cleared up as to either the meaning, the wisdom, or 
 even the righteousness of them. And many of 
 His dealings and statements — for natural laws and 
 providences are His statements — we are obliged to 
 take altogether on trust. Does not the explanation, 
 in part, lie in the fact that we are little children — 
 our old men, our great men, our statesmen, our phi- 
 
PATERNAL ANALOGIES. 93 
 
 losophers, and all — merest infants relative to the 
 Heavenly Father ? We are treated as all earthly 
 fathers of averao;e discretion are in the habit of 
 treating their offspring during tlieir tender years. 
 Winch of them tells himself and his affairs to the 
 child of four or even twelve years, absolutely with- 
 out reserve ? Some things he keeps back because 
 they cannot be understood, some because they 
 would be misunderstood, some because they would 
 be flao-rantly hurtful to that early ase. And 
 such things as he does talk freely about — does he 
 undertake the hopeless task of clearing up their 
 every aspect to that as yet scanty intelligence ? 
 When it fails to see, as it often does, the fall mean- 
 ing of his conduct, or the good judgment of it, 
 or the right of it, does he foolishly consume his 
 time and strength on the impossible task of ex- 
 plaining and justifying his comprehensive and far 
 reaching plans and movements to that glow-Avorm 
 understanding? He knows better. However affec- 
 tionate, he declines to do so foolish a thino;. And 
 may not God, though tenderness itself, decline to do 
 the like ? What are our maturest understandino-s 
 in the presence of His great plans ? What living 
 man has breadth of view enough to take in any- 
 thino; more than the smallest ano;le of those Divine 
 schemes and movements all of which embrace the 
 universe and fill eternity ? It is a matter of invin- 
 cible necessity that sometimes Divine conduct, which 
 really is fair and glorious as the day, should bear to 
 
94 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 us as mere gazers a very different aspect : it is only 
 as believers that either the children manward or the 
 children Godward can do full justice to their father, 
 human or Divine. The man-father accordingly 
 asks and expects his children to trust him where 
 from the nature of the case they cannot judge of 
 his conduct ; and everybody says the demand is 
 reasonable. And may not the God-Fatlier also 
 put His children on trusting Him in similar cases ; 
 and everybody be bound to say and feel that His 
 demand is reasonable ? 
 
 Such are sample maculae. They fully represent 
 the scope and weight of the w^hole class of nat- 
 ural sliadows, umbrae and penumbrae, human and 
 extra-human, for which God may be thought re- 
 sponsible. He is not to be thought responsible for 
 the sad moral condition of mankind — as I shall, 
 almost immediately, attempt to show. Assuming 
 this for the moment, we have in those stern-featured 
 ways of Divine Providence just cited the gist and 
 essential variety of all those maculae in Nature 
 which seem to cast interrogation points toward 
 Heaven. They are the gravest of all. In their 
 scope they sweep the whole field of natural eA'il — 
 at least this side x)f the essential constitution of 
 man. If these do not mean anything as against 
 even a paternal regard in God for all His creatures, 
 there is nothing in the whole night- side of Nature 
 that does. But they do not mean any such thing. 
 See how much they are like the shadows of oui 
 
PATERNAL ANALOGIES. 95 
 
 childhood. The kmdest of fathers make these : 
 why may not a Kindest of Fathers make those ? 
 Surely we ought not to lift our eyebrows in com- 
 plaining wonder, when, being little children God- 
 ward, we find ourselves treated as little children by 
 Him ; treated as wise and loving eartlily fathers are 
 wont to treat their children with the general ap- 
 proval of mankind. Even the children themselves 
 do not, in general, suspect either want of judo-ment 
 or of knowledge or of love to themselves in such 
 treatment. They may do it for a moment in a pet ; 
 but in general they possess that instinctive sense of 
 their own narrowness as to faculty and experience 
 which forbids their concluding against the father on 
 such grounds. They trust and love him notwith- 
 standing. They mutely say to themselves, " He 
 knows best." They silently hearken to the filial 
 instinct of trust within them which says, " He 
 means it for good ; it is the best that can be done 
 under the circumstances." If a little child should 
 be found habitually suspicious and sour toward his 
 father on such grounds, every beholder would con- 
 demn the Phenomenon, and would not hesitate to 
 pronounce him very unreasonable, very foolish, 
 very unamiable, and very unnatural. It is felt at 
 once that such conduct is the fault of a perverse, 
 unfilial heart, rather than of a stumbled under- 
 standing. And why should not we condemn our- 
 Belves — we adult persons, and yet mere children be- 
 fore God — and say it is the fault of our wayward 
 
96 FOURTH LECTURE, 
 
 liearts, if we look with coldness and distrust ou out' 
 Heavenly Father on account of such treatment as 
 He o-ives us in common with all wisest and best of 
 this world's fathers? We ought to know better. 
 The consciousness of the mere nothingness of our 
 powers, of our stark childhood and even infancy, as 
 offsetted to the Divine plans and ways, should make 
 these adverse seemings go for nothing. Shall we 
 presume to be stumbled at the Heavenly Father for 
 doing what is specially characteristic of the best 
 class of earthly fathers, in proportion to their wise 
 affection and solid greatness ? Indeed, the maculae 
 I are really faculse ; torches to illustrate the true 
 paternal character of God. The harmonies, induc- 
 tions, and Baconics of Nature interpret its shadows 
 into lio;hts. 
 
 But, thinks one, there is this great difference 
 between the case of the earthly father and that of 
 the Heavenly. The one has to accept and deal 
 with human nature and its fundamental conditions 
 as he finds them : the other had the making of this 
 nature and its conditions. The human father is 
 himself a creature, with very limited powers : the 
 Heavenly Father is the Almighty Creator, to whose 
 greatness nothing is impossible nor hard. That 
 great Father could, with the greatest ease, have 
 prevented the necessity for such unpleasant deal- 
 ings by giving us a different nature, or by omnipo- 
 tently manipulating that nature at the promptings 
 of an infinite wisdom. Would any wise and kind 
 
PATERNAL ANALOGIES. 97 
 
 earthly father subject his children to such unpleas- 
 ant features of treatment unless he were compelled 
 to do so ? Is the Infinite Father compelled ? 
 
 My fi'iend, do you know what the word " Al- 
 mighty '" means ? Do you not know that it means 
 physical power? Compelled — yes, I reverently 
 answer, compelled, in a sense and under the cir- 
 cumstances ; compelled by His own wise and right- 
 eous heart. For, just consider. The nature which 
 God has given man is the noblest style of nature 
 known. It is even the noblest conceivable. It is 
 a moral nature; capable of knowing, admiring, lov- 
 ing, freely choosing, and magnificently possessing 
 and enjoying God and virtue in apparently ever- 
 increasing degrees. No other nature is capable of 
 so high an order of enjoyment as this. No other 
 can glorify the Maker so much. The intelligent 
 appreciation and voluntary homage of such a being 
 must be the most precious and dear thing on wliich 
 the Eternal Father looks down. What is the music 
 of the spheres compared with that of a free, intel- 
 ligent, loving soul ! What are the glories of the 
 day or of the night compared with the beauties and 
 majesties of virtue! No, O Pyrrho, there is no 
 kind of created nature so noble as that we possess. 
 You cannot conceive of another as noble — with 
 such glorious possibilities. Where is the man who 
 is prepared to come forward and prove, I do not 
 say to a demonstration, but to a probability, that 
 God could have done a wiser and better thing than 
 7 
 
98 FOURTH LECTURE, 
 
 give us such a nature as this? Who knows it? 
 Who will presume to say it ? Indeed, are not the 
 probabilities all the other way ? — Well, if we are 
 to have a moral nature, it must receive from the 
 Creator a treatment in harmony with that kind of 
 nature — must it not ? It must have moral treat- 
 ment ; it cannot consistently be treated as a stone 
 on a system of pure physical force. To what ex- 
 tent physical power can enter into the best system 
 of moral treatment is evidently no easy problem. 
 Where is the reasonable man who will pretend that 
 the problem is easy, and is ready with his proof that 
 probably physical omnipotence can enter that best 
 system so largely as to make the case of the Heav- 
 enly Father with His children essentially unlike 
 that of earthly fathers with their childi'en? On 
 the contrary, the cases must be essentially alike ; 
 because both contemplate ;iioral beings under what 
 is essentially moral treatment. Whatever minor 
 differences exist, the treatment must in either case 
 be, in the main, suited to the nature acted on. It 
 must be genuinely moral. 
 
 So it appears that there is nothing in the Heav- 
 enly Father's way of dealing with His children but 
 what should be allowed consistent with the largest 
 measure of tenderness on His })art toward them. 
 Indeed, this way of dealing is, under the circum- 
 stances, a positive evidence of such tenderness. 
 
 This on the one side. On the other, behold, bed- 
 ded in the constitution and course of Nature and 
 
LAW OF THE INFINITE. 99 
 
 as solid as any science tliat ever was studied, five 
 Great Laws, which we have only to set in the light 
 and breathe upon, in order to bring out on each in 
 lustrous characters these words hidden in them 
 from the beginning : Sacred to the fatherly 
 LOVE OF God. Laus Deo. 
 
 The Law of the Infinite. We reverently ap- 
 proach the Divine Nature. We look at its knowl- 
 edge, and lo, it is omniscience. We look at its 
 power, and lo, it is almightiness. We look at its 
 duration, and lo, it is eternity. If we proceed to 
 h)ok at its moral character, shall we not continue 
 this findino- of immensities — shall we not find its 
 moral traits laid out on the same grand scale as its 
 natural ? It is to be presumed. Proportionateness 
 and equilibrium are the habit of Nature. 
 
 Tlie Divine Nature is eternal. This means an 
 eternity of moral practice — good or bad. And 
 this, according to the way of all the moral natures 
 we happen to know, means in God a present good- 
 ness or badness as colossal as that Past through 
 which it has been exercising. It has acquired an 
 infinite momentum in moving down that long and 
 mighty slope. It has the habit, the inveteracy, the 
 solidarity, the amplitude of innumerable chronolo- 
 gies. And, to-day, by virtue of that amazing prac- 
 tice, God stands at the head of the universe, either 
 the best Beino; in it or the worst. He burns toward 
 His creatures with an awful malevolence or with 
 ft benevolence more glorious than the brightest of 
 His myriad suns. 
 
100 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 His infinite reason and conscience imply tho 
 same tliino-. He sees with unbounded clearness 
 the unbounded beauty and majesty of virtue, and 
 its unbounded importance in a Being clothed with 
 such powers and occupying such a position as Him- 
 self. It is in the very focus of His omniscience 
 that He is under infinite obligation to gloriously 
 love His creatures and do for them according to 
 His splendid opportunities. Their very helpless- 
 ness in His liands is itself a piteous appeal for gen- 
 tleness and tenderness. He meets that appeal and 
 fulfills that obligation, or He does not. If He does 
 not — if in this blaze of manifestation He neglects 
 to play His magnificent role in all its entirety, not- 
 withstandino; it involves not the slio^htest difficultv 
 to Himself — He incurs an infinite guilt. To perse- 
 vere in this course, on through the measureless 
 stretches of Forever, despite the beseechings of 
 such an intelligence and of a universe whose every 
 need is always before Him — what a stress and 
 audacity of depravity it requires ! From the na- 
 ture of the case it must be stupendous ; from the 
 nature of the case it must be incalculable. Such 
 another sinner the universe does not hold. He 
 deliberately sacrifices, age after age, in the face of 
 infinite light, an infinite good in virtue itself and in 
 all the glorious results which perfect virtue, armed 
 with omnipotence and omniscience, could secure. 
 So He is infinitely righteous or infinitely unright- 
 eous, infinitely benevolent or infinitely malevolent. 
 
LAW OF CONSCIENCE. 101 
 
 Which is it? This moral character which, what- 
 ever it may be, harmonizes in its proportions with 
 the other parts of His nature — is it that gh^rious 
 goodness which insures toward all His creatures a 
 grand paternal tenderness, or is it that appalling 
 badness which insures to them the government of 
 an infinite demon ? Look about you. Is it such a 
 government you and I are living under ? Is the 
 state of this world as bad as almighty malevolence 
 could make it ? Suppose a fiend, panoplied in om- 
 nipotence and omnipotent subtlety, to set himself 
 to make the universe as corrupt and miserable as 
 he could ; would he get no nearer his object than 
 such majestic heavens as those, and such fair and 
 on the whole, happy world as this? Preposterous. 
 So we must take the golden horn of the dilemma. 
 God is as much the best as He is the greatest. 
 The Father is the best of fathers. He is tender- 
 ness itself toward His children : and all His shaded 
 measures with us are as truly conceived in an ex- 
 quisitely benignant spirit as are those other meas- 
 ures whose radiant faces pour delight on all eyes. 
 
 The Law of Conscience. One part of the 
 law of conscience is that pain shall follow conscious 
 wrong-doing, and pleasure conscious right doing. 
 Another part is that the father who hates or is 
 indifferent to his little children shall be deemed 
 cruel and monstrous. The pressure of this law is 
 universally felt. The Maker has evidently framed 
 t into the constitution of mankind. Make your 
 
102 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 inductions ; jou shall, in the regular Avay, find it 
 as much a law of Nature as is the law of cravita- 
 tion. You can overcome gravitation and go away 
 aeronautically from the earth, instead of going to- 
 ward it. So you can overcome remorse for known 
 sin and make it a remorse for holiness ; so you can 
 overcome > our horror of the man who hates and 
 tortures his own little children and perhaps con- 
 vert that horror into a liking. But, for all that, the 
 norror is as natural to man as gravity is to matter. 
 So is the connection of pain witli conscious wrong- 
 doing. Both are cosmopolitan. Both belong to 
 human nature. No clime nor country nor class 
 nor culture nor capacity nor condition where they 
 are not at home. How came this ? Did God give 
 these things to human nature because He could not 
 help it ; because He could not have a human nature 
 without it ? Nay ; there 5ire just enough triumphs 
 over the law to show well the possibility of dispens- 
 ing with it. Men do sometimes succeed in revers- 
 ing the poles of conscience, and come to feel only 
 pleasure in vice and pain in courses that look 
 toward virtue. What individual men do for them- 
 selves sometimes, God might have done for the 
 race always. He might have set the needle of the 
 entire human conscience astray from the begin- 
 ning. Had He so chosen. He might have made 
 the universal moral sense of the world sing jubi- 
 ees over sin and dirges over holiness. Why did 
 He not? Doubtless because He wanted to have 
 
LAW OF PATERNITY. 103 
 
 men virtuous. Natural laws tell God's wishes as 
 plainly as any speech can do. When we are 
 benevolent, He says sweetly in our ear, "Well 
 done" — more sweetly than Orpheus or Apollo 
 ever sang. When we are malevolent. He says bit- 
 terly in our ear, "111 done" — more bitterly than 
 ever rue or wormwood spake to the tongue. It is 
 because He greatly wants men the world over to 
 love rather than hate. This shows what He is. 
 Of course His own character is congruous with His 
 wishes. He who profoundly wishes all men to 
 love each other, Himself profoundly loves all men. 
 He has Himself the virtue which He so earnestly, 
 persistently, and universally wishes others to pos- 
 sess. He loves it, after the fashion of a Divine 
 Nature. He lays Himself out for it and its affili- 
 ated felicities, in all this human domain, after the 
 fashion of a Divine life. He is a true Father. His 
 good-will to men is splendidly paternal. 
 
 The Law of Paternity. Look about you 
 among human parents. Do they not, almost with- 
 out exception, tenderly love their little, dependent, 
 helpless children? Is not that person considered 
 almost a monster who approaches a state of heart- 
 lessness toward those who lisp toward him the 
 name, father? Is not parental love an instinct 
 through all the graded parentage of the brute king- 
 doms? The birds, the quadrupeds, the fishes — 
 animals, domestic or wild — ho\Y the feeblest and 
 most timid of them wnll flame forth in reckless self 
 
104 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 exposure to defend their young I Even the philos^ 
 opher who is parent of an ingenious theory, the 
 author who is parent of a creditable book, the 
 inventor who is parent of a useful machine, the dis- 
 coverer who is parent of an important science or 
 fraction of a science, the artist wlio is parent of an 
 excellent statue or painting, the statesman who is 
 parent of a wise measure of national policy, the 
 mechanic who is parent of a beautiful sliip or 
 house or watch — all such persons find themselves 
 havino' an affection for the things toward which 
 they sustain this relation of paternity. They are 
 the root from which that beautiful o-reenness has 
 come : their image is on it ; their life is in it ; their 
 body, their soul, their genius, their patience, their 
 knowledge, their character, is diffused through it ; 
 in short, they have in all those green leaves and 
 yellow fruits so many promising little children of 
 their own. And they almost invariably conceive 
 an affection for them as such. The abuse of them 
 is the abuse of themselves ; the praise and beauty 
 of them are the praise and beauty of themselves. 
 Such is the law of paternity everywhere within 
 the range of our observation — the parent loving 
 its offspring. Among all the animal tribes, in earth 
 and air and sea — whether the child be flesh and 
 blood ; or only the cell of the bee, the nest of the 
 bird, the dam of the beaver, or the hand-work, 
 mind-work of the ingenious man — it is loved by 
 ts author. And now we have to ask. Is God the 
 
LAW OF PATERNITY. 105 
 
 sole exception to this sweeping law of paternity? 
 Is the Being who established this law, and armed it 
 with flails of remorse — is He Himself out of har- 
 mony with it? Does He, too, not love His chil- 
 dren, whet lie r their name be men or oxen or 
 birds or flowers or oceans or stars ? The induc- 
 tion, the science, Is overwhelmingly against It. It 
 is, in fact, against much more than this ; against 
 that parental regard in God being anything short 
 of a most exalted and permanent principle. For, 
 looking around, you observe that in all cases such 
 a principle lasts as long as there is occasion for It; 
 as long as the care of the parent can really be of 
 service to the child. How long, pray, can the care 
 of eternal and almighty God be of service to man 
 and the other creatures ! Looking around, you ob- 
 serve that the higher the grade of the parent, the 
 more elevated and endurino; his attachment to his 
 offspring. In man It shows its noblest quality, and 
 in man it lasts Indefinitely. Surely, in the supreme 
 God we should look to see the principlj shine di- 
 vinely and shine eternally. Looking around, we 
 observe that the higher the grade of the offspring, 
 and the more completely It springs from and de- 
 pends on the parent, the greater the affection 
 which that parent expends upon it. The more 
 valuable the discovery which a man has made, or 
 the machine which he has invented, and the less 
 he Is indebted to other sources than himself In the 
 production of it, the stronger his regard for it 
 
106 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 Well, we should accordingly expect that man, who 
 is chief of God's works and children in this world, 
 so far as they are visible, and whose whole nature, 
 body and soul, substance and organization of sub- 
 stance, had its origin solely in Him, and hangs 
 totally on His hand — we should expect that man 
 would be favored above all the other visible chil- 
 dren of God \\\t\\ His fatherly regard. It is, in 
 fact, but another example of the use of that famous 
 Baconian induction which has built up our modern 
 sciences. Are these sciences good for anything ? 
 
 The Law of Charity. This law is. As- 
 sume a person innocent till he is proved guilty. 
 For example, assume a man honest till you have 
 positive evidence that he is dishonest ; assume that 
 a man is not a murderer till you have positive 
 ground for believing that he is a murderer ; assume 
 that a father is paternal »in his feelings, till some 
 positive reason is found for believing him unpater- 
 nal. 
 
 It would be monstrous to go on the principle of 
 treating a man as guilty till he is proved innocent ; 
 to treat him as possessed of all the vices till he has 
 proved himself possessed of all the virtues. It would 
 be bare justice to withhold positive condenniation, 
 and treatment to match, from the man till he is 
 proved guilty. It would be charity to consider and 
 treat him as innocent till he is proved otherwise. 
 On the one hand, till such proof is brought, justice 
 requires us not to decide against him ; on the other 
 
LAW OF CHARITY. 107 
 
 hand, till such proof is brought, charity requires us 
 to decide for him. Where conduct is equally well 
 explained by two hypotheses, we are to take the 
 most charitable one, instead of taking the least 
 charitable, or instead of holding ourselves neutral 
 between the two. We are to do as tlie spirit of 
 kindness would prompt. 
 
 Such is the law of charity — a law that has 
 forced itself into recognition and supremacy in all 
 decent judicial proceedings the world over ; a law 
 on which the theory of social intercourse has come 
 to found itself without contradiction in all well-or- 
 dered and enlightened countries ; a law which the 
 humblest among us knows of, and, on occasion, 
 claims the benefit ■ of as a matter of commonest 
 right rather than of charity ; a law which is the 
 natural prompting of a kind and friendly heart; 
 a law born of the Golden Rule, Do to 'others as 
 ye would that others should do to you ; a law found 
 in practice most convenient, safe, fruitful, necessary 
 
 — saving a world of vexation, mischief, and cruelty 
 
 — in fine, a law which, while not against justice, is 
 sublimely beyond it ; something gloriously higher 
 and completer ; in fact, righteousness. 
 
 Now this great law requires us to postulate the 
 paternal love of God. We are not to withhold: 
 from Him the benefit of that generous principle 
 which we concede, at least in theory, to all our fel- 
 low-men. We are to give Him credit for being 
 oaternal in His feelings till He is proved unpa- 
 
108 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 ternal. Can He be proved so? The attempt 
 has been made ; but we have seen that the most 
 unpleasant features of His deahng with us, so far 
 from being of the nature of an attack on His char- 
 acter as a Father, are not only perfectly consistent 
 with but even suggestive of a wise tenderness on 
 His part. Under these circumstances, the law of 
 charity steps in and demands of us that we put a 
 favorable construction on appearances ; that we 
 take a friendly and generous view of the case ; that 
 instead of judging our Maker and Father from the 
 side of harshness, or from the side of indifference, 
 we judge Him from the side of good-will ; that we 
 say to ourselves, " He shall be esteemed innocent 
 till He is proved guilty." " He shall not be sus- 
 pected even, till there is made out positive ground 
 for suspicion." " We will do to Him as we would 
 that others should do to us." If this is more than 
 just, it is not more than righteous. 
 
 The Law of the General Rule. A child is 
 in such close and constant dealing with his earthly 
 father that he cannot well hold himself in a state 
 of suspended judgment as to whether his father 
 loves him. He must decide. Well, if he must 
 decide, a very natural consideration to present 
 itself is. Does he treat me as if he loves me ? And, 
 in case some facts apparently look one way and 
 some the other, it is very plain that he ought to 
 decide the case, not according to the exceptions of 
 treatment, but according to the general rule. It 
 
LAW OF THE GENERAL RULE. 109 
 
 would be plain absurdity, if a decision must be come 
 to, not to base it on the general tenor of the treat- 
 ment received. If this is found to be as if his 
 father loved him — if he finds that, in general, his 
 father treats him as though he v^ere a dear son — 
 he ought to admit that such is really the fact, 
 though he cannot explain in consistency with it a 
 few facts that have a contrary look. He is to go 
 by the rule, not by the exceptions. Suppose, then, 
 he finds this to be the state of facts. He hears his 
 father say that he loves him — not unfrequently. 
 Not unfrequently he finds the parent directing to- 
 wards him kindly and tender looks, smiling upon 
 him, and even embracing him. He looks around 
 and finds himself sheltered in a beautiful home, and 
 sees specially assigned to him his own beautiful 
 rooms filled with conveniences and beauties. He 
 finds himself wisely and abundantly fed and clothed 
 and instructed by his father ; especially finds him- 
 self taught by him carefully and well on moral and 
 religious matters, including the reciprocal duties of 
 parents and children ; finds that his father tries to 
 keep him from all evil ways, and to give him those 
 principles and habits which are fitted to secure him 
 a happy, useful, and prosperous manhood ; finds 
 that he so deals with him that he is actually, on the 
 whole, happy, and would be vastly more happy if 
 he conformed as carefully as he might to all his 
 father's laws and hints — indeed in such a case 
 would surely become a most happy, useful, and no- 
 
110 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 ble man ; in addition, as I have already partly said, 
 finds him from time to time calKng him by every 
 manner of endearing name and epithet, nursing his 
 sickness, comforting his sadness, saying that he 
 loves him, assuring him that on occasion he could 
 and would freely die for him, promising him that if 
 he will try to do well the abundant ancestral riches 
 shall provide more magnificently for his mature 
 fife than he can now possibly imagine ; finds that 
 such things express the general drift of his experi- 
 ence as a child. Ought he to be at a loss how to 
 decide his problem, though he is at a loss how to 
 explain occasional severities of dealing on the part 
 of his father ? But if he is at no such loss — if he 
 plainly sees that these things of exceptional aspect 
 are or may be, after all, but the natural expression 
 either of an invincible necessity or of a wise tender- 
 ness in the father — much more readily should he 
 accept a conviction of that tenderness. Under 
 such circumstances the child always does accept it ; 
 indeed, always does so with merely a vague notion 
 and instinct of these facts. Does he not do rightly ? 
 Would he not be universally condemned were he 
 to do otherwise ? 
 
 To apply the illustration. Situated as we are, we 
 cannot avoid taking up some positive attitude as to 
 the question. What is the feeling toward us of God 
 our Heavenly Father ? We must make a judgment. 
 And, in order to do it, a natural question is, How 
 does He treat us, in the main — is the general drift 
 
LAW OF TEE GENERAL RULE. Ill 
 
 of His dealing with us kind and tender ? Allow- 
 ing that, here and there, unexplainable facts of ad- 
 verse appearance exist, it were monstrous to decide 
 according to these in defiance of the mighty ma- 
 jority. Better to defy the pitiful minority. Dark- 
 browed and resolute as these exceptions may seem, 
 if we go against anything, let us go against these in 
 their weakness and scantiness. These are a few 
 strao-o-lers ; the others a compact and disciplined 
 host. For, look at them ! First, the Great 
 Father professes to love us. To lay no stress on 
 hundreds of written declarations, " I love you, I 
 love you," professing to come from Him ; the flow- 
 ers, the songs, the golden light, the precious per- 
 ■ fumes, the delicious tastes, all grace and beauty of 
 form and feature and motion abroad in Nature — 
 these are so many loving words, smiles, caresses of 
 the All-Maker and All-Father toward the intelli- 
 2:ent creatures who are aware of them. Wlio does 
 not know it — vocal speech is not the only language, 
 the lighting up and wreathing of a face is not the 
 only smile, the pressure of an arm of flesh is not 
 the only embracing ! O bright-faced sky, O smil- 
 ing earth, O scented and singing and festival springs 
 and summers, O innumerable anthems and poetries 
 of delightful Nature — ye also are God's tender 
 looks and words and sacred kisses to us! Next, 
 see what a beautiful home He has fitted up for 
 us; ceiled with sapphire, floored with emerald, 
 walled and curtained with sunsets and sunrises, 
 
112 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 upholstered and garnished superbly and almost 
 unboundedly for our shelter, our convenience, our 
 dignity, and our delight. Then see what stores of 
 heathful and pleasant food he provides for us in the 
 manifold grains and fruits ; of suitable and comely 
 clothing in the bolls of cotton, the fleeces of flocks, 
 the moils and spoils of the silk-worm ; of useful and 
 exalting knowledge in the eyes and ears and other 
 organs by which He puts us in communication with 
 the wonders of this wonderful universe. Espe- 
 ciall}'', see how careful He has been to furnish every 
 man with a conscience to inform him and reform 
 him on matters of right and wrong ; and even to as- 
 sure him that the Creator ought to love, and would 
 be greatly guilty were He not to love, and, to the 
 extent of His power, bless His creatures. See how, 
 by means of conscience, and the laws of Nature, and 
 the general strain of providence — to lay no stress 
 on the written laws with their impressive sanctions 
 which claim to have come from Him — He seeks to 
 influence us virtue-ward and shape us to good 
 principles and habits ; for, let it not be forgotten, all 
 intelligent observers admit that the general flow and 
 pressure of nature and experience are in favor of 
 goodness. See you that most men are actually 
 secured by His care so much happiness that they 
 had greatly rather continue to be than cease to be, 
 though annihilation were made painless or even 
 pleasurable. See you, also, that it is consciously in 
 the power of every man to be vastly more happy 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 113 
 
 and useful and noble than he is, by carefully im- 
 proving the opportunities furnished him and care- 
 fully conforming to such Divine laws as he can dis- 
 cover ; indeed, in his power to be gloriously happy 
 and noble. See the Great Father dowerino; us 
 with imagination and hope that kindle and expand 
 in a course of well-doing, and — while conscience 
 says, " Dear one," and sacredly fondles you in God's 
 name ; and the Scriptures say, " He has loved you 
 enough to die for you " — see how that wonderful 
 fancy and hope, conscience - prompted, begin to 
 prophesy in vaguely magnificent speech of unspeak- 
 able glories that flush and span with their triumph- 
 ant arches your ascending way. See such things 
 making up the general rule of treatment from our 
 Heavenly Father. Oh, if we could say nothing in 
 explanation of the occasional somberness of the pa- 
 ternal Heaven that bends over us — if it were thick- 
 ly beclouded beyond all falcon glances of our wisest 
 and best — still our judgment should refuse to be 
 ruled by the poor and scanty exceptions, and should 
 bow instead to that kingly rule whose crowded con- 
 gregation of voices proclaim in sonorous harmony a 
 loving Father in heaven ! But since these excep- 
 tions are explainable and explained — since it ap- 
 pears that they only show a dealing common to and 
 characteristic of a wise and tender human father- 
 hood over moral beings — we yield ourselves with 
 redoubled cordiality to the law of the general rule, 
 8 
 
114 FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 and say fervently, God our Father does love His 
 little children. 
 
 Altogether and law upon law, I discern an Un- 
 limited Love and Righteousness outbeaniing from the 
 heavens. An unlimited righteousness ! This attri- 
 bute completes in God a perfect and glorious com- 
 petency to govern. Wisdom, power, and duration 
 without measure — surmount this cathedral struc- 
 ture witli the superb roofing and dome of a perfect 
 goodness, and you 'have a wondrous palace from 
 whose golden gates niay fitly issue the edicts of a 
 universal monarchy. Behold a God who is abun- 
 dantly able to manage the affairs of a universe, and 
 fill its august throne to infinite advantage ! That a 
 system of things made up of blind matter and fallible 
 intelligences and depraved hearts should go on as 
 well, or a millionth part as well, by itself, as under 
 the scepter of such a complete Being, is incredible 
 and impossible. So He ought to govern. So it 
 would be an unspeakable wrong to His creatures 
 should He neglect to govern. So, gloriously per- 
 fect Being as He is, He surely occupies the supreme 
 throne over all, as His magnificent duty and their 
 magnificent necessity ; giving to the different sorts 
 of things in the universe the kind of government 
 suited to each ; giving to blind matter the govern- 
 ment of physical omnipotence, and to moral beings, 
 with their mixed constitution, a mixed government 
 of physical force and moral law. In which case 
 the actual state of the world, with its lights and 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 115 
 
 shadows, its smiles and its tears as well, is through- 
 out the expression of a grand Divine love. 
 
 This on the supposition that God exists and is the 
 Author of Nature. The scientific corollary of this 
 supposition we find to be a fatherly love of Divine 
 proportions beaming on the world. And the maculae 
 of all sorts, properly attributable to God, so far 
 from making against His goodness, are themselves 
 parts of a broad and consummate scheme of love 
 by which the Heavenly Father ministers to His 
 great family. 
 
V. 
 
 IN TENEBRIS. 
 
 ApiaTcpa KOi ov KaT€(T;^ov, Sctia koi ovk oipofxai. 
 iioirjcrov 8' aWpyjv, 86s S' ocbBaXfxoicnv iSeaBai. — HotMT 
 
V. In Tenebris. 
 
 1. THIRD OBJECTION ... 
 
 2. NARROW INTELLIGENCE 
 
 3. FRAIL BODY . . • . . 19 
 
 121 
 
 4- FRAIL REASON 
 
 • • 123 
 
 5. FRAIL SENSIBILITY ^^6 
 
 6. DEPRAVITY 
 
 7. TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT . . * * '^! 
 
 *•■••• 130 
 
FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 IN TENEBRIS. 
 
 ANOTHER objection to the existence of God 
 is drawn from His Obscurity. 
 
 It is claimed that a God would have made Him- 
 self more appai'ent to men tlian He seems to be. 
 He would have so manifested. Himself as to make 
 it impossible for men to doubt or to neglect His 
 existence. At least He would have done more in 
 this direction than is observed. A large class of 
 men find small difficulty in living with little or no 
 veneration for such a Being, or even thought of 
 Him ; the faith of many in His existence is trouble- 
 somely vireak ; some have no faith whatever ; while 
 others positively disbelieve. 
 
 In gradual answer to this objection, I submit the 
 followino; considei'ations : — 
 
 1. A perfect revelation of God to human intelli- 
 genee luould be impossible. 
 
 Of course, a finite being cannot fully understand 
 one who, relatively to himself, is infinite. Were God 
 to undertake the task of revealing Himself to me 
 m all His completeness, in order to succeed, He 
 
120 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 would be obliged by the nature of things to ex- 
 pand my intelligence into dimensions like His own. 
 Even as only a philosopher can well understand a 
 philosopher, so only a God can fully understand 
 God. There is no help for it — to beings so narrow 
 as men, God must be, in large part, shrouded in 
 impenetrable obscurity. 
 
 This fact, of necessity, precludes men from the 
 most impressive view of God ; namely, that of His 
 whole nature, with its entire wealth of resources — 
 a view, of course, infinitely more magnificent and 
 memorable than that fractional view that is ])ossil)le 
 to us. It also, of necessity, precludes men from the 
 best class of natural evidences and illustrations of 
 the Divine existence ; that is, those broader and 
 more complex plans and works on which He has 
 laid out the most wisdom and power. A perfect 
 Framer of tlie universe must* have one plan that is 
 all-embracing ; in which each thing is so delicately 
 framed into every other thing throughout space 
 and duration as to make of the whole mighty com- 
 plexity a glorious unit. Who but a God could 
 master sucli a scheme as this ? The problem of 
 the two bodies matliematicans have solved ; that of 
 three bodies yet bids defiance to analysis ; that of 
 the solar system, mucli more that of our galaxy, 
 much more still that of the stratum of nebulie in 
 Virgo, is one which we never expect to solve. But 
 how much fin-ther beyond us still is that universe- 
 system, in which every atom is to be considered a 
 
FRAIL BODY. 121 
 
 world, and every world is to be considered, not 
 merely in its mechanics, but in its metaphysics and 
 its morals ! But if we only could grasp tliis all- 
 comprehending system in all its detail of harmonies 
 and wisdoms, we should, no doubt, have such a 
 recal evidence of the existence of a Divine Mind as 
 would dwarf into invisibiHty any natural proof of 
 Him wliich may now be within our reach. Our 
 narrowness cuts us off completely from this grandest 
 proof. It can even make that proof seem in parts 
 positively ill proportioned, incongruous, empty, and 
 even noxious. We 'are like the little cliild of a 
 statesman. Some of that father's smaller domestic 
 arrangements he understands — perceives them to 
 be right and wise. But those great national and 
 international schemes and movements are all nebu- 
 lous and confused to the unfledged thinker. They 
 look inexplicable. He sees no wisdom in them. He 
 sees here and there things of apparently an oppo- 
 site character. And yet this is the man with the 
 fitme of whose statesmanship the country is ringing; 
 and these the very works of his which shall entitle 
 him to his historic place among the astutest man- 
 agers of empires. Tlie child, because he is a child, 
 is compelled to miss what is really the best illustra- 
 tion of his father's greatness. 
 
 Thus the very finiteness of our faculties suspends 
 a veil between us and God. 
 
 2. A revelation of God much short of what our 
 intelligence could grasp would consume us. 
 
122 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 Suppose God should take as much of His nature 
 as we can understand, and bring it to us in the way 
 of adequate personal manifestation to the senses. 
 Could we endure the exhibition? Why, we can 
 hardly bear such sights and sounds as we ourselves 
 can produce. We ourselves can kindle such glory 
 of conflagration, can detonate such might and maj- 
 esty of sound, as shall destroy sight and hearing, 
 and even shock the weakly out of life. And surely 
 if God should come upon our senses with such im- 
 perialism of sights and sounds as would appropri- 
 ately represent the utmost power and knowledge 
 we can conceive — as would worthily express our 
 ideas of Eternity and Almightiness and Omnis- 
 cience — that moment would be our last. Appropri- 
 ate to the utmost power we can conceive — why, 
 we can conceive of a power that can take up the 
 isles as a very little thing, poise a planet in its hand, 
 launch forth a nebula on the void as if it were an 
 atom, crush together instantly into one palpitating 
 pulp all known sidereal systems with as much ease 
 as you do tlie beaded cobweb of a summer's morn- 
 ing ! We coukl, if need were, imagine a power 
 equal to still greater feats than this ; one, with 
 reference to our powers, properly called infinite. 
 And I say what a show it would have to be to 
 worthily ex])ress, not merely such a power as that, 
 but also a virtual Omniscience and an absolute 
 Eternity ! Could our senses or even our lives en- 
 dure it? Even now, when the common lio;htnin£: 
 
FRAIL REASON. 123 
 
 shoots before our eyes, how they quiver back from 
 the bhiiding flame ; and when the common thunder 
 comes upon us in some great crash, how our ears 
 and liearts quail under the terrible bass ! And 
 were God Himself to come flashing and pealing on 
 the world in all that outward majesty that rightmlly 
 belongs to Him, and fitly signifies to sense the pres- 
 ence of a virtually Infinite Being, who of us would 
 see another moment in the body ? We should 
 straightway be dazzled out of life. Our frighted 
 senses and hearts would give one leap, and then be- 
 come motionless forever — and this though they 
 were a thousand-fold stronger than they are. The 
 men who ask that God should personally manifest 
 Himself to their senses as God, know not what 
 they ask. Do they want to be driven out of the 
 body by the fire and sword of intolerable discover- 
 ies ? — After our finiteness has hung one veil be- 
 tw»een us and God, our safety as embodied beings 
 would compel Him to interpose another. 
 
 3. A revelation of God such as ivoidd not consume 
 us, woidd yet so shake and derange the mental f acid- 
 ties as to prevent due use of the revelation. 
 
 Scenes not sufliciently I'ousing and awful tc 
 shock men out of life, are often enough to shock 
 them out of reason. How many have been made 
 idiotic or insane by appearances which took fierce 
 hold of their imaginations and astonishments, and 
 by them so shook the soul that it fell into dreary 
 ruin ! That terrible fire ; that fearful explosion 
 
124 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 that awful storm or battle ; even that strange flight 
 of meteors ; that portentous comet ; that bloody sun ; 
 that crude marvel of the SpirituaHst or expected 
 marvel of the Millerite ; that apparition of some sort, 
 from the airy cok)ssus of the Brocken to the ghostly 
 form in the weird moonlio;ht — how it shattered the 
 man ! His body survived, his senses escaped with- 
 out harm, but the more delicate system of nerve 
 and brain and rational thouo-ht could not endure 
 the strain, and became a melancholy wreck. And 
 so we see that it is not enouorh for God to abstain 
 from such manifestations of Himself as would de- 
 stroy the body. He must also abstain from that 
 lower manifestation that would break down the 
 stamina of the soul, confound the power of rational 
 judgment, and paralyze our faculty for using a man- 
 ifestation. Should a being of virtually infinite ghuy 
 and majesty come on our senses, or our thoughts, 
 with any but the most inconsiderable fraction of 
 His greatness, our feeble souls would infallibly go 
 into unhingement. I am now speaking of the most 
 compact and stoutly built souls. I would not have 
 trusted a single one of them, though bearing a 
 supreme name among hero-worshippers, in the 
 midst of even such phenomena as ])elonged to the 
 breaking up of the Paleozoic or Mesozoic Period. 
 Such outpour from above ; such heaving from be- 
 low ; such ren(lino:s of the caves of Eolus and of 
 Neptune ; such tourneys and concussions of the 
 enfranchised winds and waves ; such thunderous 
 
FRAIL REASON 125 
 
 Marseillaise of the wrathful mob of volcanoes, earth- 
 quakes, tornadoes, and oceans ; sucji an awful mael 
 Strom of blackness, blaze, sound, and death ; such 
 wars of tlie Titans with the Gods — must have 
 twice exterminated every overt species of hearing 
 and seeing animal life ; first by affright, and then by 
 direct violence. Had man been there, though his 
 soul had been boned and the wed like Alcldes, 
 he would have lost his reason. These dplicate 
 nerves and brains of ours, tiiat so bow and break at 
 the approach of what, after all, is mere Nature — 
 what would they not do at the approach of the Great 
 Supernatural in any fitting circumstance ! But 
 care must be taken not only for these few heroic 
 souls, but for the much larger number who are no 
 heroes — for the many frail ; the many sick ; the 
 many excessively timid, nervous, superstitious ; the 
 many ignorant, weak-minded, ill-balanced persons 
 scattered everywhere through the world. For the 
 sake of these — for the sake of those hundred neigh- 
 bors of yours whose souls are greatly less firm in 
 texture — God must still further limit the public 
 manifestation of Himself to the senses. He does not 
 want to turn the world into a Mad-house any more 
 than into a Morgue. There are already enough 
 lunacies and unsoundnesses of mind in human 
 society. — So another veil must be interposed be- 
 tween man and God. The man who asks that there 
 should be made to us a full discovery of God, knows 
 not what he asks. Does he want the world peopled 
 
126 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 with Gods instead of men ? Does he Avant to be- 
 come a handful of ashes, or at least to be dazzled into 
 corpsehood, by an insufferable brightness ? Does 
 he even want his reason and nervous system to fall 
 to pieces under a manifestation of the Eternal ? 
 If not, he must be content to have at least three 
 veils hang between him and God. 
 
 4. Such a revelation of God as would not derange 
 our 7ninds, would sjjepdili/ hemimh the faculty 0/ 
 asto?nshme7it and general sensibility, and so would 
 soon cease to be specially impressive, and could only 
 be resorted to occasionally. 
 
 If Deity is local — if His personality is not uni- 
 versally diffused, but occupies a limited district, 
 sucli as Christians call heaven — then He could not 
 make a permanent personal manifestation of Himself 
 here without pei-manently depriving other parts of 
 the universe of a manifestation. The most He 
 could do would be to supply some standing substi- 
 tute for Himself; perchance some astonishing Form 
 to lighten through the sky and personate that Divin- 
 ity which for the greater ])art of the time it does 
 not include. A sincere being cannot be supposed 
 to do this. The best He could do would be to make 
 an occasional personal appearance among us ; and 
 for the rest of the time supj)ly such august messen- 
 cers and otlur miracles as should testify of God to 
 human senses without purporting to be God, or to 
 include His actual )>rcsence. This is really the 
 best that could be dui;.-. But, if you please, we 
 
FRAIL SENSIBILITY. 127 
 
 will suppose it is not — we will suppose tliat both 
 of these modes of revelation are permanently open 
 to Him: every day a mighty Form that really in- 
 cludes God can send its dazzlino; paoeant on our 
 sight, and every day the angels can fly and tlie 
 dead rise and Nature tremble in awful testimonial 
 to His being and greatness. How would such a 
 system as tliis work ? 
 
 As we have seen, the grandeur of the exhibition 
 must be g-reatlv moderated, to make it safe for either 
 the senses or the intellects of men. But, within 
 the limits of safety, a very grand exhibition might, 
 doubtless, be made. We can be greatly moved and 
 astonished without any dano-er to reason. But we 
 cannot remain greatly astonished for any length of 
 time, especially by the same thing, not even by any 
 variety of things. As men now are, a permanent 
 astonishment is impossible. No wonder can con- 
 tinue a wonder save for a very brief period : and 
 the greater the first effect the sooner it will be over. 
 Can Niagara astonish and awe you indefinitely 
 long? Ask those who have lived out years by 
 the side of it. Try it yourself As soon as you 
 perceive the effect decaying, pass to the ocean, and 
 you may in a degree renew your feeling ; but how 
 many months or even weeks will it be before the 
 sonorous majesty of the Atlantic itself will abate on 
 the familiarized senses ! Then take the traveler's 
 privilege, and go on as swiftly as steam can carry 
 you to another w^onder, and then another. By a 
 
128 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 timely passing from the cataract to the mam, from 
 the main to the Alps, from the Alps to Latin miv 
 seum and palace and cathedral, |)letlioric with the 
 glories of genius and antiquity ; from these to the 
 astonishment of the Pyramids and Carnac and Lux- 
 or, you may proti'act the interest very considerably ; 
 ybut at last, and that after no lonii; time, the faculty 
 of wonder will become so numb that you can witness 
 the most remarkable object Avith as little movement 
 of soul as any commonplace object is wont to inspire. 
 You will turn your face homeward. Why should you 
 go on when your heart has become a mere clod — 
 when you would hardly turn a corner to see Ther- 
 mopylae, or climb a hill to find Ol^anpus in session ! 
 Such is the common history of sight-seeing. And 
 I make no doubt that, were God to appeal to the 
 senses of men daily by astonishing revelations, it 
 would not be loner before we would be as little im- 
 pressed by them as we are now by the daily sun or 
 nightly dome of stars ; as the men were who once 
 actually supposed the sun to be God, and in many 
 a Heliopolis thought every thunder to be his voice, 
 every whirl vvind his breath, and eveiy earthquake 
 his movement ; as we theists are now by the con- 
 stant advent of bodies and souls into the world 
 without any apparent cause that does not seem to 
 us infinitely inadequate. Variety in the form oi* 
 revelation would |)rotract the first astonishment and 
 awe ; but despite everything they would speedily 
 come to an end. Those born and bred to such dis* 
 
FRAIL SENSIBILITY. 129 
 
 plays — and sucli sliould we all have been had the 
 principle of a permanent display been acted on — 
 would never have any special impression at all from 
 the dailv prandeur, any more than those Avho have 
 always lived at Chamouni or Eddystone, in daily 
 view of the highest majesty of the Alps or the high-^ 
 est majesty of ocean. In order that any safe aston^* 
 ishing display in behalf of God may have the maxi- 
 mum of effect, it must be only occasional. ' 
 
 As to just how frequent the exhibition could be 
 with the best advantage, it would be hard to say. 
 No theory of maxima and minima with which I 
 am acquainted solves the problem. But I am in- 
 clined to think that the man who made the round 
 of the seven ancient wonders of the world once in 
 twenty years, got more impression from them than 
 he would have done by seeing them once in five. 
 And I know that the friend who made one yoyage 
 on the ocean and saw it in all its moods, and then 
 'svas ever after left to his memory and imagination, 
 carried with him to his grave a grander sense of 
 the huge flood than his companion of equal native 
 sensibility to such things, whose whole after-life 
 was spent upon it ; or than that other equal com- 
 panion who made his second and third voyage. 
 And what right have I, as a logician, to venture on 
 the affirmation that a single astonishing exhibition 
 in favor of God would not do as much with most 
 men toward placing Him in an impressive light as 
 any larger number of such exhibitions ? Indeed, 
 9 
 
130 ^ FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 as facts stand, I would not like to affirm that with 
 most a mere tradition of such an exliibition, well 
 told and well believed, and then committed to that 
 wondrous painter, the Imagination, would not, on 
 the whole, be more impressive and just and dura- 
 •bly influential than sight itself. Never such an 
 Apelles as the Imagination. She has colors on her 
 palette, and models in her eye, such as never enter 
 into pictures on the retina. She habitually out- 
 paints all the galleries. And she can, out of her 
 own resources, give a brighter picture of God and 
 miracles than could possibly, with any safety, burn 
 its way through the lenses of the eye and the laby- 
 rinths of the ear. And let this picture have the 
 prestige of reality — let it be fully believed in as 
 expressing substantial fact — and it will surpass all 
 other pictures in impressiveness as well as bright- 
 ness. It will also surpass all others in general 
 truthfulness — provided its outline is really fact. 
 No doubt sight is the truest painter of common 
 objects ; but not of such as have immeasurable 
 greatness and excellence. We cannot get too im- 
 j)ressive a conception of these. The nobler the 
 conception, the truer. Let that su])reme colorist, 
 the Imagination, lay out all her ])ower and dip her 
 pencil in the sun ; it will be an incomparable pic- 
 ture of God and astonishing miracle that she will 
 give, and as much juster than all others as it sur- 
 passes all others as a mere picture. And, further, 
 a picture by the Imaginatioj] does not lose its im- 
 
FRAIL SENSIBILITY. 131 
 
 pressiveiiess by repetition, as do the pictures of 
 sight. One hundred sights of Niagara will practi- 
 cally abolish the wonder ; a hundred sights of a mir- 
 acle would practically make it no miracle ; but not 
 so a hundred imaginations of these things. For, 
 unlike the senses and the nerves, the Fancy gets 
 more skill and power with every picture she makes. 
 Now, this greatest of painters, whose canvas is 
 so impressive, so true, and so durably efficient, can 
 only work to advantage under certain conditions. 
 A flood of light on an object, of course, takes it 
 completely out of her hands. Sight, in any of its 
 degrees, restricts the freedom of her pencil. It is 
 only when an object is given in mere outline to 
 faith — and sight never gives an object in mere 
 outhne — that she has the fullest scope and motive 
 for all the wealth and witchery of her art. She 
 then has the inspiration of faith stimulating the 
 highest freedom of invention. No, indeed — I would 
 not venture to say that the credited tradition of a 
 Divine manifestation would not, with most persons, 
 be better than tlie sight of it ; that, for most, to 
 read of Divine manifestations and mii-acles in per- 
 haps distant times and countries, and believe in 
 them, and then to leave them in the wonder- 
 working hands of that faculty that has built up the 
 world's great epics, would not fasten on the mind 
 the justest as well as the gi-andest sense of them, 
 and warrant the saying, '' Blessed are they whc 
 have not seen, and jet liave believed ! "— Evi- 
 
132 FIFTH LFCTURE. 
 
 dently, we must consent to liave another veil hang 
 between us and God. He neither wants to turn 
 the world into an Olynijnis, nor into a Necropolis, 
 nor into a Bedlam, nor into a Boeotia. Shall He 
 make men stare till they are stupid — make won- 
 ders so familiar to them that they must cease to be 
 wonders? Whoever asks for an unstinted revela- 
 tion of God, knows not what he asks. Does he 
 insist on being himself a Divinity ? Does he w^ant 
 his senses and his life to shrivel up before an intol- 
 erable Morv ? Does he want his frio^hted soul to 
 leap into the abysses of distraction or idiocy? Does 
 he even want prodigies wasted by a vulgar fre- 
 quency ; or by acting on the principle that, for 
 most, the great spiritual powers. Faith and Fancy, 
 with their sunset pencil and immeasurable canvas, 
 have less power to render the Infinite to the soul 
 than has the gross bodily sight with at least three 
 dense curtains before it ? If not, he must be con- 
 tent to have four veils hang between him and God. 
 
 5. Such a revelation of God as could he penna- 
 nent without henumhing our sensihilitg, must he still 
 further limited hy our depravity. 
 
 If men were ])erfect in point of moral condition, 
 the preceding causes of obscurity would still act. 
 But men ai'c not morally perfect; they are very 
 far from it ; their moral natures are universally and 
 wretchedly broken down and corrupted. And this 
 fact cannot do otherwise than heavily becloud the 
 Supreme Being, Who expects a sick body to do 
 
DEPRAVITY. 13S 
 
 bodily work as well as a sound one can do ? Who 
 expects a muddy pool to reflect the sky as well as 
 the fountain of Helicon ? Who expects the astron- 
 omer ffazino; at a heavenlv bodv through a cracked 
 and unhomoo-eneous lens to see it as well as throuMi 
 a Clarke or a Frauenhofer? It is not possible. 
 Nor is it possible for a sick, turbid, broken soul 
 to give as clear and just views of God as would 
 be natural to an unfallen being. Sinners can 
 see trees as well as if they were no sinners: 
 doubtless can see outward prodigies expressing God 
 just as well as they could with perfectly pure 
 hearts. But as to seeino; God in these tliincrs — 
 this is quite another matter ; and it is just here 
 where sin acts as an obstruction. Sin is naturally 
 averse to and afraid of a perfect Deity, naturally 
 unwilling to recognize Him, naturally glad to find 
 pretexts against the validity of any evidence of 
 Hhnself which He may furnish. It is disposed to 
 shut the eye and ear on such evidences, to look for 
 th'em anywhere but in the right place, to see what 
 it must see with the dead eyes of statues or with 
 the dwarfing eyes of insects. In the presence of 
 such a disposition no Theistic illustration, nor argu- 
 ment, nor even ocular demonstration, can pass for 
 wdiat it is worth. In the presence of the higher 
 degrees of such a disposition the brightest Divine 
 credential — though its name be Alcyone, central 
 sun of the whole system of evidence — must be sad- 
 ly blurred, and may be totally suppressed ; indeed, 
 
134 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 is not unlikely to be totally suppressed. Why, the 
 man has only to say, " Beelzebub," " magic," " op- 
 tical illusion," to set aside any miracle ! Why, the 
 man has only to say, " Nature," " law," " develop- 
 ment," " endless series," "spontaneous generation " 
 — such high-sounding words, liberally and discreetly 
 used, are enough to explain away from such a man 
 the finest natural proof of God that could possibly 
 amaze a philosopher. Who needs be told it — while 
 it is notorious that men can doubt anything they 
 choose, and on occasion can persuade themselves 
 that fields and floods, hills and heavens, are nothing 
 but fictions of the brain ! Yes, there must always 
 be more or less haze between the sun and a marsh. 
 If the marsh is sulphurous and hot, the haze will 
 be a cloud tlirouo-h which shall not struirsle the 
 faintest outline of an orb, or even of a halo. 
 
 But this is, possibly and not improbably, but one 
 fold of the veil which sin hangs between us and 
 God. Were God from a certain point to increase 
 the general evidence of Himself, He would be sure 
 to increase the responsibility of every human being. 
 But He would n(jt be sure to increase the airsi'e- 
 gate faith and virtue of the world. Indeed, would 
 He not be sure to do the contrary ? In some cases 
 a change for the better would'be produced : as cer- 
 tainly in many other instances the chanp-e would 
 be for the worse. The increased liMit would be 
 resisted — sometimes by unbelief and sometimes by 
 believing unrighteousness — and consequentl}^ more 
 
DEPRAVITY. 135 
 
 guilt incurred and more damage sustained than 
 under the old state of things. That there would 
 be many on whom this sad effect would display 
 itself, no one familiar with life will doubt : that the 
 number of such persons would not be so great as 
 to outweigh with their disasters all the good done, 
 who has a right to affirm ? Just bethink your- 
 selves what multitudes daily manage to resist any 
 amount of evidence when their inclinations, preju- 
 dices, habits, are against it ! Just bethink your- 
 selves what multitudes fail to walk by the evidence 
 they accept ; though accepted as proving at least 
 the possible truth of so heavily sanctioned a system 
 as the Christian religion ! Beyond a certain point 
 in the accumulation of evidence for a God, the 
 damaged multitude would surely become a damaged 
 majority. For, after a certain stage of revelation 
 has been reached, it is no longer want of evidence 
 that prevents faith, or want of motive that prevents 
 virtue ; it is disinclination and frowardness of heart. 
 Increasing the amount of proof does not touch the 
 seat of the trouble. Double the proof, treble it — 
 it makes no difference ; the men are unbelievers 
 still. With the mind made up, it is just as easy to 
 shut the eyes on a mountain as on a mote ; just as 
 easy to turn back on the north when it is flaming 
 with ruined rainbows as when bare of a single ray. 
 So there must be a point in the accumulation of 
 evidence for a God, when, while increasing as fast 
 as ever the responsibility of a wicked world, it 
 
136 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 ceases to increase its faith and virtue. Here a per- 
 fect God must break off His proofs. Sin has added 
 another fold to its veil. 
 
 But is there not yet another fold from this source ? 
 The necessity of not doing more harm than good 
 would limit the revelation to sinnei*s : Avould not 
 the necessity of doing them as much good as possible 
 limit it still further ? It was once said of a certain 
 text-book in science that it was too simple and ex- 
 planatory for the use of students in a college ; it did 
 not tax and discipline their minds sufficiently. No 
 one would have denied that the book was a good one ; 
 that a very valuable culture was derived from the 
 study of it ; that its advantages greatly outweighed 
 its disadvantages. But these facts did not establish 
 the ])ropriety of. holding the algebra to its place in 
 the college. The question to be answered was, 
 not whether the treatise was on the whole useful, 
 but whether it was as useful as some other would 
 be that should throw the students more on their 
 own resources. And this question was answered 
 in the negative. It was decided that a less explan- 
 atory book would serve the purpose of mental edu- 
 cation better. So Stanley was substituted for Day, 
 as perhaps Day had been substituted for Euler. 
 Now, is any one competent to say that God has not 
 seen reason to make a sinn'lar decision in regard to 
 what is the best mode of teaching men theology, 
 the science of God? As a good Being, His object 
 in revealinor Himself to the world would not be 
 
DEPRAVITY. 137 
 
 merely a good moral discipline and culture, but the 
 best possible. And it is conceivable that even as 
 the obscurer manifestation of algebra may do the 
 most for the crude and wayward intellect, so tlie 
 obscurer manifestation of God may do the most for 
 the crude and wayward heart. May it not be a 
 noble discipline of character to inquire after God 
 humbly, patiently, fervently, in the face of some 
 difficulties? May it not be a noble discipline to 
 practice carefulness, love of truth, fairness of mind, 
 prayer for Divine guidance, as a requisite to suc- 
 cess? And when success comes in this travailing 
 way, would not it and its results be all the more 
 highly prized for the pains taken ? These are sug- 
 gestive queries. And they make it unsafe for any 
 one to declare it improbable that the veil which sin 
 hangs between us and God is not thick with tlie 
 necessity of securing the best as well as a good 
 moral training for a depraved world. 
 
 So add a threefold veil of sin to those four veils 
 which, from the nature of the case, must interpose 
 obscurity between us and God. He neither wants 
 to turn the world into an Olympus, nor into a Ne- 
 cropolis, nor into a Bedlam, nor into a Boeotia, nor 
 into a Stonehenge, nor into a Pandemonium. An 
 unstinted revelation of God — the man who asks it 
 knows not what he asks ! Does he want the crea- 
 ture to take on the full stature of the Creator? 
 Does he want such an exhibition as, with its ter- 
 »'ible sheen and trumpet, shall blast his life away? 
 
138 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 Does he want Reason to start headlons: from hei 
 throne, and maunder out of the dust ? Does he 
 want the faculty of astonishment calloused by daily 
 violence into an Ironsides which no marvel, though 
 cata])ult-hurled, can inijiress ? Does he want men 
 made with stocks and stcmes for souls, instead of 
 free moral natures ; or that God should content 
 Himself with something less than the good, or even 
 the best, in His method of deahng with sinners ? 
 If not, he must be content to have the world look 
 toward God with at least five veils dimming His 
 majesty and existence. 
 
 At least this number of veils may or must de- 
 pend between a God and this sinful world. And 
 now the question is, whether they will account for 
 as much obscurity on the Divine existence and 
 majesty as an objector may properly assume to 
 exist. How much obscurity is that ? How much 
 M'ill intellip-ent theists admit? They will admit 
 that some persons have no faith in God ; that mul- 
 titudes have far less faith than w^ould be desirable ; 
 that still greater multitudes have jm idea of God 
 that is troublesomely weak, unimpressive, and unin- 
 fluential. This is the obscurity we confess to exist 
 within men. As to the obscurity without them, 
 "we confess something and claim more. We con- 
 fess, of course, that the revelation of God is not 
 overwhelming in the amount and quality of its 
 evidence, so as to make unbelief and negligence im- 
 possible to such beings as men ; nor do we know of 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 139 
 
 any evidence in earth or heaven, within tlie whole 
 realm of even ocular and mathematical demonstra 
 tion, that does possess such a character. We con-" 
 fess that the evidence is not such as to totally 
 exempt men from care and pains in order to receive 
 and retain its full force ; and we have yet to learn 
 that it would be desirable to have it so. Thus far 
 we confess. On the other hand we claim, and hold 
 ourselves ready to prove, that the existence and 
 majesty of God are supported by evidence that is 
 decisive ; evidence that is sufficient; evidence that is 
 very great ; evidence that is greater by far than 
 upholds any other moral thing ; evidence fully as 
 great as men seem disposed to improA^e ; evidence 
 great enough to secure, in every age, almost uni- 
 versal faith in at least one Worshipful Intelligence 
 indefinitely superior to man in wisdom and power, 
 and quite universal conviction of the possibilitv of 
 such a Being (which, so far as the practical guid- 
 ance of life is concerned, is almost as exacting a 
 principle as faith itself) ; indeed, evidence great 
 enough to give moral certainty and a renovated 
 character to every pei'son from sunrising to sunris- 
 ing who will use it faithfully. We claim, and hold 
 ourselves ready to prove, that Nature and the Su- 
 pernatural have not spared themselves ; that they 
 are generous witnesses for God ; that they vie with 
 each other in the richness of their testimony ; that 
 God has a shrine in every history, a temple in every 
 science, a stoled priest with his Novum Organ on 
 
140 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 in every bosom ; that the wide campus of matter 
 swept by microscope and telescope as far as yonder 
 picket nebula is everywhere covered with hiero- 
 glyphics of Him which no Cbampollion is needed 
 to decipher, everywhere hung with His cartoucbes 
 and coats of arms which no colleg-e of heralds is 
 needed to explain, everywhere tracked with His 
 giant foot-prints vastly more scientifically intelligible 
 than any of these fossil scriptures of the Connect- 
 icut which so nobly enrich your museum — further 
 and chiefly, tbat the supernatural evidence carries 
 itself still more regally in a God who has often 
 spoken audibly with men ; has often stood among 
 them in visible personal forms ; has dwelt for tbirty- 
 three years on the amazed and panting planet in a 
 human body ; has maintained for ages an oracle 
 whose Delphos and Dodona shone with miraculous 
 Shekinahs and infallible Urim and Thummim ; has 
 made the future visible, the dead to live, tbe earth 
 to tremble, tbe heavens to blaze, the angels to fly 
 singly or in armies along the sky in attestation of 
 Himself; indeed, has even personally come down 
 in presence of forewarned and expecting hosts, em- 
 bosomed in a storm of miracles and wdth ineffiible 
 pomp, as if to silence, once for all, the clamors of 
 such men as say, " Nay, fither Abraham, but if one 
 went to them from the dead, they would repent;" 
 and, finally, has scattered these direct manifesta- 
 tions and these attesting miracles, wntli their diac- 
 onate of special providences, through the ages as 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 141 
 
 liberally as can be shown consistent with tlieir best 
 effect, bridging the intervals between them with 
 well-accredited and well-believed traditions from 
 amid whose mighty arcjies and colonnades and pic- 
 turing perspectives they can, not improbably, be 
 seen to better advantage by the majority of man- 
 kind than from the portico itself 
 
 Lo a Man of whom I have great things to say ! 
 He had profound faith in God. He not only be- 
 lieved in the Divine existence and perfection and 
 government ; but that glorious idea seemed to him 
 very much as did the ground which sustained him, 
 the air which he breathed, and the heaven which 
 rained on him from its azure cope the glory of sun 
 and stars. — Is God all about me? Does He look 
 and work on my riglit hand and on my left, upon me 
 and within me ? Do I never go abroad but that His 
 providence paces along; never rest at home but 
 that His sleepless sovereignty watches at my bed- 
 side ? While I am thinking, is He busy among the 
 thickly coming fancies and arguments; prompting, 
 repressing, proportioning with a tireless hand? 
 While I am speaking, is there no slightest tone that 
 does not reach His quick ear ; and no hearer's 
 heart Into which He Is not looking, and where He 
 is not working in behalf of the truth ? The wind 
 that sighs under these eaves — is it true that the 
 pulse of almighty power is In It ? The cloud that 
 sails yonder — is it so that an omniscient thought 
 is riding on it, hither and thither, for its secret mis- 
 
142 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 sion ? Each ray of licrht that makes its way throuo-h 
 these windows — is it feathered with a Divine pur- 
 pose, and is every minute reflection from wall and 
 seat and dust-particle presided over and sjoverned 
 by a single personal agency as real as that which 
 turns over the leaves of this manuscript ? — So 
 thougjit that man of faith. So was he convinced. 
 So, indeed, he almost seemed to see. Other eyes 
 than those of his body seemed to dw^ell behind and 
 look through those grosser orbs, and to see things 
 too subtle and essential for them. The common 
 world lay insphered in a supernatural. All thino-s 
 were " living and moving and having their being in 
 God" — as says Euripides, O yT^s oxyfia, kolttI yrjs 
 ^x'ov eSpav — Chariot of the world and having 
 His throne above it. In the greatest national af- 
 fairs, and in the obscurest domestic history as well, 
 played a Divine hand. Whatever befell, whether 
 sad or glad, was the providence of God. The 
 fields of earth and air and sea, instead of appearing 
 as so many platforms on which the machinery of 
 natural causes was milling out science and inevitable 
 results, seemed so many Fields of the Cloth of 
 Gold on which the Great Supernatural was accom- 
 ])lishing in his own i)roper i)erson the grand part of 
 King of Nature. As to him of Patmos, a shinin< 
 Infinite Presence seemed moving about among aL 
 those ages and empires and ecclesiasticisms ano 
 homes and individual joys, soitows, virtues, sins — 
 above all, mingling freely with all his own aftliirs, 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 113 
 
 and pacing with unwearied step throughout body 
 and soul and all personal mysteries. Not more real 
 was yon mountain that half shuts out the day. Not 
 more real was yon ocean that awes so many lands 
 with its lordly voice. So temptations were cobwebs 
 to him. So dangers were no dancrers. So trials 
 were a heavenly discipline. So life and death were 
 only different ways of spelling the same word. Re- 
 proaches, ill-fame, martyrdoms — what recked he 
 even for these ? He endured as seeino; Him who is 
 invisible. And all skepticisms, and philosophies 
 falsely so called, though pretentious and crested as 
 ever were ocean waves, broke harmlessly upon him. 
 If at some point that rooted continent occasionally 
 seemed to lose a few grains of its rocky substance, 
 it was only to more than add them to some other 
 part of its great coast. So all the while the Terra 
 Firma rose and grew and peopled itself — as Amer- 
 ica is now doing amid the buffets of two oceans. 
 It was a grand sight to see — that great, immov- 
 able, progressive faith ; and the profuse billows of 
 French unbelief breaking into smoke or ever they 
 touched its mighty sides I 
 
 How came this ? Was the man intelligent ? He 
 was a philosopher by nature and training, and such 
 an effulgent thinker had not been seen for many 
 a day. Was he practical ? No man managed his 
 common affairs with more sobriety and discretion. 
 Was he a victim of the unaccountable phantasms 
 of youth or of age ? He was at the noon of his 
 
144 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 great and well-balanced faculties. And yet what 
 a triumphant believer ! How shall we account 
 for him ? I will tell you. Years ago that man was 
 wholly without faith. Somehow his skeptical read- 
 ing and his puzzling speculation had by degrees 
 taken away the God of his fathers. Look where 
 he might, there were no satisfactory signs of the 
 supernatural. He could see nothing but great 
 Nature. And from out his loo;ical foo;s he looked 
 with mingled pity and contempt on men simple 
 enough to believe. But, as said Plato, without 
 a God no man is at rest. So one day he caught 
 the lio;ht from a new ano;le. He was startled. 
 An immense Perhaps stared him in the face. He 
 became at once an earnest inquirer. He set him- 
 self to examine the fundamental religious question 
 with as much pains as reasonable men use in their 
 very important secular concerns. He thought that 
 much was plainly reasonable. He also thought it 
 reasonable to invoke the God who might be, and 
 who, if real, could easily and abundantly help. So 
 he called freely on the possible Divinity — as a 
 man lost in the forest will sometimes lift up his 
 voice in loud calls for helpers whom he can neither 
 see nor hear, but who, for all that, may be near 
 at hand. — Another thing he did meanwhile. He 
 freely consulted that Book which above all others 
 credibly purported to be a Divine message. He 
 found its aroma very peculiar. It was not that of 
 materialism. He found its ways not like those of 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT, 145 
 
 man. Nothing like them in science or history or 
 business. Every verse had its face turned God- 
 ward. Every chapter stood gazing upward, like 
 the Christian apostles on Olivet. Every section 
 cried God — "Him first, Him last, Him middle, 
 Him without end." The whole credible message 
 gravitated, pointed, and prayed toward this great 
 Center. Gradually the habit of the Book became 
 the habit of the man. Gradually, as he read, he 
 felt himself lifted into purer airs and clearer pros- 
 pects. Gradually, as he read, he felt a new sight 
 quickening and reaching forth from the depths of 
 the old — especially as he went on to test the mes- 
 sage, according to its own invitation, by a personal 
 experiment on its adaptations to human wants and 
 the faithfulness of its promises. — And so he began 
 to live in such a way as made the thought of a right- 
 eous God full pleasant. Then his faith ripened fast. 
 The vintage grew heavy and purple every day be- 
 neath beams so bright and genial. And at last 
 the man came to have, if not a Divinity, at least 
 a Divine work going forward bravely within him. 
 Great reforms took place. Great reconstructions of 
 character occurred. A structure far nobler than 
 the proud baronial halls in which he dwelt, arose 
 within him. And, withal, his soul with its real 
 though spiritual ear caught the sound of great spirit- 
 ual processes of rectification and repair and cleans- 
 ing and enlargement going on within its chambers, 
 
 and became conscious of being touched and lifted 
 10 
 
146 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 and wrought by a wondrous agency not of this 
 world. — When the builder is doing little or no 
 work in my house, I may sit quietly, and quietly 
 look out of the window, and scarcely ever think of 
 there being such a person, though he is busy 
 through the village from morning to night. But 
 let him come into my own dwelling, and begin ex- 
 tensive repairs — let him drive the axe and the 
 plane and the hammer with the energy of a strong 
 man in the very room I occupy — let him lever 
 and screw up the whole building to rest on a 
 new and higher foundation — let him take out old 
 and decayed timbers and replace them by new 
 ones, dig down my walls of plaster and panel 
 others for me in immortal oak, put up addition 
 after addition, and so go on with infinite hewing 
 and carving and beating to transform my hut 
 into a palace — can I help ^realizing that builder 
 then ! He will scarcely ever be out of my thoughts. 
 When my eye does not actually rest upon him, 
 there will still be in my mind a vivid picture of 
 his doings, as matters very real and very near — 
 especially if ithey are never carried on independ- 
 ently of me, but with hourly reference to my 
 judgment and assent. — So it was with that great 
 believer. As soon as a thorouo-h moral transfor- 
 mation came to be fully in process within him, he 
 became aware of a Divine Builder as never be- 
 fore. Spiritual senses asserted themselves. There 
 were spiritual sounds and motions and touches 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 147 
 
 and thrills Avhicli could not be mistaken. The 
 chambers were perfumed with a heavenly breath. 
 The corridors echoed to a heavenly step. A 
 heavenly voice sweetly rang through the vaulted 
 halls. He felt that he was experiencing God. 
 Coynmunion with God was established — lo, it had 
 been said, " We will come unto him and make our 
 abode with him." So while God was building up 
 the character, He was just as fast building up 
 the faith, and fulfilling the promise that whoever 
 does His will shall know of the doctrine. Thus 
 it was the man became continental in faith. Thus 
 did he reach moral certainty. Thus did he see 
 his cornucopia filled to overflowing, and passed 
 almost beyond the power of understanding how 
 men could think of complaining of the obscurity 
 of God. And thus it came to pass that w^hen he 
 died, it was with a far more confident expecta- 
 tion of waking on God than he ever had, when 
 falling asleep, of opening his eyes the next morning 
 on his own ducal domains of Broglie. 
 
 Such was the method by which a seeing faith 
 came to him. And it has come in the same way 
 to many another. I take it on me to affirm that 
 it might come in the same way to all — to all 
 these men who are complaining of the scant light. 
 Let them try this specific. Let them try it, if 
 they would have moral certainty on the most im- 
 oortant of all questions. They cannot claim that 
 the method is not reasonable, plausible, and essen- 
 
148 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 tially philosophic — if there is a God. It is such 
 as a God would uot be unhkelj to put men upon. 
 And it is fortified by an experience that deserves 
 to be called scientific. It is a principle of science, 
 parrying with it the universal suffrage of modern 
 scientific practice, that any objection to an hypothe- 
 sis is sufficiently met when a simple, natural, and 
 perfectly credible way of solving it, in consistency 
 with that hypothesis, can be stated. But in this 
 case we have more than such a natural statement. 
 We h^vQ that supported by a wide experience and 
 induction. Let every believer in experimental and 
 inductive science take notice — until he also is able 
 to join that unsandaled and elect company which 
 m every age has not failed to look upward and 
 around with awe-stricken faces, and to softly say 
 with the supreme confidence of sight these purifying 
 words, " Thou compassest my path. Thou besettest 
 me behind and before. Whither shall I go from 
 Thy Spirit!" 
 
 Does any one imagine that such obscurity on the 
 being and majesty of God as may belong to such a 
 system of revelation as this, is not suflficiontly 
 accounted for by our five veils — one of them, at 
 least, of indefinite thickness ? I hold that the situ- 
 ation of mankind in respect to Theistic light is very 
 like our situation in respect to sunlight on some fair 
 day of summer. There are floods of rays abroad. 
 High hill-top and profound valley shine. But some 
 men are in less sunny places than others, some look 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 149 
 
 fortli from northern aspects, some live in smoky 
 lilrminghams, some are inclosed in curtained and 
 sliuttered houses, some are busy in sewers and 
 pits and coal-caves, and some are blind. " Why 
 is it so dark ? " saj some of these men. " What 
 darkness do you mean ? " I ask. " Do yoii mean 
 the darkness in your cloistered houses, your fum- 
 ing furnaces, your subterranean dens ? Why, your 
 shutters and smoke and ceiling of opaque earth- 
 strata sufficiently account for that. Ascend from 
 your pit ; go forth a few miles from your smoky 
 Birmingham ; make your shutters and curtains de- 
 scribe a full semicircle in favor of the day, and you 
 will find a wonderful improvement in the bright- 
 ness and salubrity of your surroundings. No Les- 
 lian nor Wollaston gauge will be needed to ascer- 
 tain it. But perhaps jou mean a darkness on the 
 general face of Nature ? If so, then I have to say 
 that I have not discovered any particular scarcity 
 of licrht there — there seems to me enoug-h for all 
 practical purposes ; indeed, it seems to me that 
 the amount of light is exceedingly great. Still I 
 am willing to admit that it is not as great as might 
 be. Were the earth to cease reeking its vapors ; 
 were the cloddy fields to change into pure and bur- 
 nished gold ; were each slant ray to become a per- 
 petual perpendicular ; especial I}^ w^ere the sun itself 
 to draw nigh till all heliometers are abashed and 
 the whole sky is filled with its flaming disk, we 
 should have still more hVht : the want of these 
 
150 FIFTH LECTURE. 
 
 things is so many veils before the majesty of the 
 sun, and all the dimness — if you please to call it 
 such — which you perceive they will sufficiently 
 account for. Would you have these veils removed ? 
 Then prepare to perish in the blaze ; or to part 
 with senses and reason in the appalling effulgence ; 
 or to have all objects reduced to the same dead 
 level of commonness by the undiscriminating and 
 perpetual dazzle ; or, finally, to become less vigor- 
 ous, manly, virtuous persons than you now are — 
 perhaps like yonder enervate and voluptuous trop- 
 ical Asiatic, sweltering alike in his sun and his sin 
 — do this, or totally change your natures. With 
 such natures and tendencies as you have, I think 
 that this bright temperate zone and this golden sun 
 of a half-degree diameter is the very best thing for 
 you — wonderfully better than a sun whose fiery 
 shield fills the whole astonished one hundred and 
 eighty degrees. Who has a right to deny it? 
 And pray, who has a right to deny that this bright 
 though tempered revelation of God which theists 
 claim, with men only held responsible for such 
 measure of light as they have, is the very best 
 revelation which could possibly be furnished to 
 fallen beings ! 
 
VI. 
 
 HARMONIES WITH NATURE. 
 
 Apart CK Tov ovpavov tovs ot^c^aA/xou,, koI ifx/SXeif/are eis 
 T7ji/ yrjv kJt'jj. 
 
 Zeus, IivOixr]v yatT^s re koX ovpavov aarepoei/ro?. 
 
 Orpheus. 
 
VI. Harmonies with Nature. 
 
 1. VASTNESS 157' 
 
 2. VARIETY IN UNITY 161 
 
 3. FINISH OF MINIMA ,66 
 
 4. WISDOM 169 
 
 5. DYNAMICS 17- 
 
 6. RELATION TO LAW j8o 
 
 7. RELATION TO TIME AND MOTION 186 
 
 8. MYSTERY » - - . 191 
 
 9. TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT ...... ,96 
 
SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 HARMONIES. 
 
 IN the last lecture I mentioned some sources of 
 obscurity which must embarrass a manifestation 
 of God ; namely, the narrowness of our intelligence, 
 the frailty of our bodies, the frailty of our reasons, 
 the frailty of our sensibility, and the sinfulness of 
 our hearts ; and then endeavored to show that 
 these will easily account for all the dimness of 
 Divine manifestation that intelligent theists will 
 admit to exist. Their admissions will be scanty 
 It seems to them that the light is that of broad 
 summer day — admirably broad and brilliant, 
 though capable of being suppressed to any extent 
 by the personal habits of mankind. 
 
 This concludes what I have to say in answer to 
 objections to the doctrine of a God. These objec- 
 tions are few. Atheists are more accustomed to as- 
 sail the proof of the doctrine than the doctrine itself. 
 
 In coming to the positive evidences for the 
 Divine existence, we are met by the fact that 
 theists and atheists agree as to the advantage 
 0^ approaching the question of a Divine Being 
 
l';4 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 witli a mind freslily steeped in the leading facts 
 and courses of nature. The atheist claims that 
 nature makes on minds thoroughly imbued with 
 her spirit an impression adverse to faith; and 
 points in evidence to some eminent cultivators 
 of the physical sciences who have been as skep- 
 tical as they have been scientific. So he is in 
 favor of the study of nature. On the other hand, 
 the theist is in favor of it for the very oppo- 
 site reason. He denies the atheism of science. 
 He refuses to infer it from the unbelief of some 
 French and German pliilosophers — with here and 
 there a second-rate English disciple — whose 
 minds from childhood have been poisoned with 
 the writings of Voltaire and his school, who have 
 seen around them only a grotesquely corrupted 
 form of religion, and whose private lives for the 
 most part were sucli as tg make it greatly for 
 tlieir interest to have no God. To him the case 
 of such exceptional men only shows the exceed- 
 ing force of native depravity, evil training, evil 
 surroundings, and evil habits, at withstanding 
 the natural tendency of their pursuits. This 
 tendency he regards as strongly theistic. He 
 thinks he sees premonitions, prophecies, presump- 
 tions, and even proofs of Divinity in the great 
 universe that expands around him ; and believes 
 that, other things being equal, the more fully 
 one comes under tlie influence of tlic astronomy, 
 tbo geology, and tlie otlicr branches of natural 
 
AUTHOR OF yATURE. 155 
 
 Bcience whose findings have amazed mankind, 
 the more easily he will admit and the more 
 strongly he will hold, the doctrine of a Divine 
 Being. 
 
 What all classes think it well to do, let us at- 
 tempt. We will attempt to place our hearts still 
 more fnlly en rapport with nature. We will, if 
 possible, get them into yet closer communication 
 and sympathy with its great leading facts and 
 courses. These are chiefly astronomical. Yet I 
 shall not restrict myself to astronomical facts, 
 technically so called, but shall allow myself to 
 gather from the whole of that broad field of 
 science of which astronomy is the undisputed 
 and all-comprehending Chief. And I can not but 
 think that the effect will be to preclude objec- 
 tions, to furnish presumptions, and generally to 
 dispose the mind to a mighty faith in God. I 
 am persuaded that any man who can be fairly 
 set down in the midst of nature, and thrown 
 honestly open to all its subtle inductions, mag- 
 netisms, inspirations, will silently drink in theism, 
 as a fleece spread out under the stars drinks in 
 the dew. 
 
 Suppose it claimed that a certain veiled paint- 
 ing is the work of Titian. If, on gradually lifting 
 the veil, we find exclusively trait after trait such 
 as might have been expected in a work by that 
 great master, our disposition to think favorably of 
 the claim increases with every step : and if, when 
 
156 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 the canvas is entirely exposed, every leading fea- 
 ture seems Titian ic and the whole worthy of 
 such an author, our minds are far advanced 
 toward faith — they are in a state of high prep- 
 aration for any ulterior evidence, and only com- 
 paratively little of it will he required to secure 
 full conviction. And this is reasonable. Pre- 
 vious to examination, how could we be sure that 
 there were not lurking under that veil incompat- 
 ibilities, or at least disagreements ? Now our 
 uncertainty is removed. We have found positive 
 harmonies. The facts match the claim. The 
 picture is such as might have been expected from 
 Titian — such indeed as he would surely have 
 painted. His great characteristics are strikingly 
 here. And these are so many verisimilitudes, so 
 many presumptions in favor of the claim : and, in 
 the absence of all evidence to the contrary, at 
 least authorize the critic to stand at the very 
 verge of assent, facing it kindly and with foot 
 uplifted, ready to cross the border at the first 
 competent invitation. Let such an invitation 
 come in the shape of an assurance that the paint- 
 ing is almost universally accepted as the work of 
 Titian, especially among the most intelligent and 
 fair-minded judges ; further, that the hypothesis 
 which ascribes the work to him is, as compared 
 with other hypotheses, altogether the simplest, 
 ihe least embarrassed, the most useful, as well as 
 the mo; t liistorical — this would and should plant 
 his feet in the verv center of faith. 
 
VASTNESS OF NATURE. 157 
 
 Now it is claimed that nature is the work of 
 God. Let us, step by step, unveil its leading 
 features and see if they do not strikingly harmo- 
 nize with the claim: and, as they may be found 
 to do so, let unbelief approach its frontier ; and, 
 when at last the general scheme of nature appears 
 characteristic and worthy of God, let the traveler 
 at least stand on the last boundary of his chill 
 and somber territory, all ready to cross with de- 
 cisive and ringing step into a brighter land at 
 the first summons of the positive evidence. 
 
 What I propose, thew, in the present lecture, is 
 to illustrate the general harmony between nature 
 and the doctrine of a God. Of course, a few 
 specimen illustrations are all that can be offered. 
 One will do well to feel the pulse of nature still 
 more fully in the works of Ray and Good and 
 Paley, in the Bridgewater Treatises, and in later 
 works of the same character. 
 
 One of the most striking features of what we 
 call Nature is its vastness. 
 
 . I do not forget that I am speaking to those who 
 have become familiar with the wonders of physical 
 science. But neither do I forget that even the 
 scholar must refresh his impressions of things in 
 very much the same way with other men. So I ask 
 you to think of plains stretching to the horizon ; 
 of mountains piercing the clouds ; of roomy con- 
 tinents anchored in roomier oceans ; of this whole 
 ^arth-spliere, with its huge baldric of twenty-five 
 
158 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 thousand miles, covered with innumerable ve^ 
 getable products, peopled with men to the poten- 
 tial figure of a thousand millions, swarming still 
 more potentially with the lower animals, and so 
 flooded with microscopic life that almost every 
 cubic inch of air and water and soil is panting 
 with an incalculable population, — some of whose 
 smaller individuals multiply themselves into 
 one hundred and seventy billions in four days ; 
 gather their five hundred millions in a single 
 drop of water ; and yet make up, with the stony 
 cerements of the merest fraction of their fossil 
 ancestry, whole mountains and geologic beds. 
 Such is our world. Out in yonder vault, .find 
 that millionfold world which we call the sun, 
 with its invisible retinue of a hundred earths • 
 out in yonder vault, when night falls, find a 
 thousand suns similarly attended ; with tube 
 Galilean, thousands more ; with tube Herschel- 
 ian, millions more ; with tube Rossian, billions 
 more. Is this the end ? What astronomer for 
 one moment imagines that another enlargement 
 of the great speculum at Parsonstown would 
 show our vision to be already hard up against 
 the frontiers of nature ? Not even Darwin doubts 
 that successive improvements in the space-pene- 
 trating power of our instruments would go on 
 indefinitely opening up firmaments at every step. 
 Where is the verge of the universe ? Who would 
 undertake the roll-call of its orbs ? Who dares 
 
a 
 
 FASTNESS OF NATURE. 159 
 
 to say that he could count through the grand 
 total of its firmaments, even though he sliould 
 count a thousand years ? Figures go but a small 
 way toward expressing the dimensions of such a 
 universe — whether one considers the number of 
 its worlds, or the expanse of space through which 
 they are distributed. Our world spins round its 
 ellipse, of well-nigh t«o hundred million axis, 
 without ever having a neighbor nearer than 
 thirty millions of miles, save its own moon. 
 The interval between our sun and the nearest 
 star of the same galactic nebula is twelve hun- 
 dred thousand times this distance. And then 
 the distance from nebula to nebula — it is abso- 
 lutely awful. Our telescopes sweep a sphere of 
 stars whose diameter is seven millions of years, as 
 light travels. Calculation covers its abashed face 
 with its great wings in the presence of these over- 
 whelming amplitudes. And such is nature ! 
 
 Certainly such a universe as this does not cry 
 out against the existence of a God whose essen- 
 tial attribute is immensity. On the contraiy, it 
 is just such a universe as one would have eoc- 
 pected to come from such a being. Nay, given a 
 Deity who is practically at home in every point 
 of space, whose attributes are laid out on a scale 
 of imbounded vastness, to whom it is just as easy 
 to make and govern a trillion of worlds as it is a 
 grain of sand, and the imperial fitness of things 
 would demand that he people vacancy with very 
 
IGO SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 much that profusion and breadth vf being that 
 we actually see. The work ought to express and 
 honor the workman. And when I am told of an 
 author of nature who is immense with a three- 
 fold boundlessness of intelligence, might, and 
 years; so that to him our great and small, our 
 far and near, our center and circumference — 
 though that circumference sweep around all the 
 expanses of modern astronomy — are practically 
 the same ; so that he can properly challenge, "Do 
 not I fill heaven and earth ? " — when I am told 
 of this, and I then place myself out under the 
 open dome of nature, amid its exuberant objects 
 and marvelous stretches, I feel myself silently 
 drinking in predispositions to faith as the fleece 
 spread out under the open heaven drinks in the 
 dew. I feel that the doctrine matches facts ; that 
 the theory has in its favor *a comprehensive veri- 
 similitude and presumption ; that Nature, instead 
 of saying, " There is no immense God," signifi- 
 cantly asks, in a tone of encouragement and with 
 a look of incipient expectation, "Is there not such 
 a Being ? " In fine, I feel that our slight lifting 
 of the veil from the painting has disclosed a fea- 
 ture strikingly characteristic of the great master 
 to whom the work is attributed — a feature which, 
 in the absence of all counter-evidence, naturally 
 sets our faces faith ward — one, of several har- 
 monies which, as successively presented, will war- 
 rant us ill looking faithward with evergrowing 
 kindliness of aspect. 
 
VARIETY IN UNITY. 161 
 
 Notice with me the variety in unity that char-' 
 acterizes Nature. 
 
 Some hundreds of millions of creatures on our 
 earth are so much alike that we put them into a 
 class by themselves and call them men. They are 
 all alike in certain fundamental features ; and yet 
 each man differs materially, both in body and soul, 
 from every other man. So of every other class 
 of things — animal, vegetable, inorganic ; while 
 there is a sub-stratum of unity among the mem- 
 bers of each, on account of which they are 
 classed together, there is not one which is not 
 very unlike, in many respects, all its fellows. All 
 animals have great points in common : but how 
 many, many sorts of animals ; and how great the 
 difference between the eagle and the microscopic 
 mote, between the cetus and the polyp, between 
 the most perfect man (body and soul) and the 
 rudest of the polypi ! All vegetables are similar- 
 ly constituted : but whose memory can master all 
 the distinct kinds of vegetables in the wide inter- 
 val between the spire of grass and the huge tree 
 that wrestles victoriously with stormy centuries ; 
 and reckon up the great differences that exist, as 
 to shape and size and color and flavor and odor, 
 among fruits and flowers and leaves and grasses 
 and shrubs and trees. Great threads of unity 
 obviously connect all the forms of terrestrial 
 being, organic and inorganic ; but this we know, 
 that, if only single specimens of all the plainly 
 
162 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 separated species were attempted to be brought 
 together into one Crystal Palace of a museum, we 
 should have to roof in empires, instead of acres, 
 in order to accommodate their mighty array: and as 
 our eye would run over the whole superb collec- 
 tion, and at last bring together the two termini — 
 viz., the material man and the material stone 
 just crumbling into dust — our sense would be 
 that of a miraculous diversity efflorescing out of 
 the unity of our world. So with those other 
 worlds that shine or hide in the vault above. 
 They are all spheres, all have orbitual and prob- 
 ably axial motions, all are governed by the same 
 principle and law of gravitation, all are ligjiied 
 and colored and warmed by the same mysttrious 
 element or impulse ; but on such basal unity is 
 superimposed an almost infinite variety. Observe 
 our solar system. One member of it is self-lu- 
 minous, and, -relatively to the other members, a 
 nearly stationary body ; the others are dark, and 
 far-wandering planets. One is one hundred miles 
 in diameter, another nearly one hundred thou- 
 sand, while still another contains more than 
 eight hundred times as much matter as all the 
 remainder of the system can boast. Some have 
 atmospheres and seas, others have neither. Some 
 have moons, others have none. Saturn rides 
 forth in the pomp of three great equatorial rings, 
 as well as of eight moons ; no other planet is simi- 
 larly furnished. These orbs of our system differ 
 
VARIETY m UNITY. 163 
 
 greatly in density — one is as lead, another as 
 cork, another still is mere vapor. One receives 
 seven times as mnch light from the snn as 
 we, another only a three hundred and sixtieth 
 part of as much. Neptune's year is equal to 
 one hundred and sixty-five of our years. Saturn's 
 day is only one-half of our day. Of course 
 the products and ^scenery of these worlds, as 
 well as the constitution of their inhabitants, 
 must differ exceedingly. But pass we on to 
 the region of the fixed stars. Have we es- 
 caped into immeasurable uniformity out of im- 
 measurable variety ? Lo ! we skirt systems, clus- 
 ters, firmaments, and never two alike, while some 
 stand apart by whole universes of difference ! 
 Lo, systems with several suns each, from one to a 
 hundred ! Lo, systems lighted, some with white 
 suns, some with ruby, some with emerald, and 
 some with suns of many different colors ! Lo, 
 suns differing exceedingly in size and amount of 
 light they shed : for the great. Sirius that flashes 
 first magnitudes on all our cliarts as well as on 
 the dazzled retina of the savage, is not as near 
 to us as the little 61 Cygni, and its light must 
 be equal to that of two hundred and fifty suns 
 like our own ! Alcyone shines with a force 
 of twelve thousand suns. And then we have 
 suns themselves combined into systems of all 
 sizes and shapes — systems of two, of three, 
 of many, of millions, — firmaments which, un- 
 
164 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 der the name of nebulas, are the last gen- 
 eralization and most stupendous variety of mod- 
 ern discovery : sometimes rolled up into spheres : 
 sometimes gatliered into circular or elliptic rings; 
 now fan-shaped ; now like an hour-glass ; now 
 broad wheels of compacted suns, large, glitter- 
 ing, and sublime enough to under-roll the chariot 
 of immeasurable God. There are not two leaves 
 or grass-blades perfectly alike in all this verdant 
 world ; not two worlds, nor systems of worlds, 
 accurately alike in all the prodigious realms of 
 astronomy. 
 
 Now no one, to say the least, can claim that this 
 vast variety imbosomed in unity makes positively 
 against the idea of one Creator of boundless in- 
 vention and executive faculty. On the contrary, 
 it is just what we should have expected hotvis. such 
 a being. Given just such ti many-sided, versatile, 
 complete Deity as is affirmed — we should say 
 that, in case he should set himself to produce a 
 vast universe, he would be likely to produce one 
 in which great outlines of unity would be steeped 
 in immeasurable variation ; one in which resem- 
 blance and diversity, both robed and featured like 
 goddesses, would hold each other by the hand 
 and go treading with wedded and festival step up 
 and down the whole quickened area. Nay, this 
 sort of universe one would make sure of findino- • 
 would be greatly disappointed if he should not 
 find. The eternal laws of his own nature would 
 
VARIETY IN UNITY. 165 
 
 demand it of the Great Builder. Tlic iiivia- 
 cible beauty and fitness of things would &^- 
 mand it. Perfect uniformity, however piled up 
 in magnificent magnitudes — even a uniformity 
 only varied ui'tor so cramped and frugal a fashion 
 as would be perpetually suggesting poverty of re- 
 sources — would belie the inexhaustible Divinity. 
 If he build at all, ho must not misrepresent and 
 disparage himself in his work ; his fruitful na- 
 ture, teeming with all imaginable fertilities and 
 seeds, must surely blossom into very much that 
 marvelous fruitfulness of product and pattern 
 which we observe. And when I am told of an 
 author of nature whose being swarms in resistless 
 force toward every point of the compass, nay of the 
 sphere ; who is both a unit and a polygon, facing 
 every desideratum and possibility with a flashing 
 side, both of thought and action, that out-dazzles 
 the sun — when I am told that such a being is 
 the author of nature, and I then put myself 
 forth under the open dome amid the glorious di- 
 versities that root themselves in the glorious 
 unity of nature, and open myself freely to all 
 their subtle suggestions and magnetisms, I feel 
 myself drinking in predispositions to faith, as the 
 exposed fleece drinks in the dew. I feel that 
 again the doctrine matches facts, that again the 
 theory has a comprehensive verisimilitude and pre- 
 sumption, that Nature instead of saying that 
 there is no God whose unity is arborescent 
 
106 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 with endless varieties of beauty and power, sig- 
 uificantly asks, "Is there not such a Being? In 
 fine, I feel that our continued lifting of the veil 
 from the painting has disclosed a second trait 
 strikingly characteristic of the Great Master to 
 whom the work is attributed ; a trait which, added 
 to the first, warrants our faith ward look in taking 
 on new kindliness of aspect. 
 
 Another characteristic of nature deserving of 
 notice is the perfection of its details. 
 
 The exquisite finish of nature in its minutest 
 parts is about as wonderful as its vastness and va- 
 riety. Scan that leaf. Examine the wing of that 
 butterfly. Let the tinted and polished antennae 
 of that moth glitter in the focus of your instru- 
 ment. Subject to the skilfullest notice of science 
 and art the smallest veins of any animal or vege- 
 table. Push the analysis just as far as possible, 
 and submit that last visible minimum of organi- 
 zationin the crystalline lens of the cod, with its five 
 millions of muscles and sixty thousand millions 
 of teetli, to the most searching criticism of the su- 
 perbest microscope. What exquisite details i 
 What elaborate refinement of workmanship ! It 
 is not as with some master-piece of human paint- 
 ing — the main points only cared for, while all 
 the subordinate are too rude to bear close inspec- 
 tion. Titian painted this landscape. Well, it is 
 worthy of him — the general effect is beautiful. 
 Yet, if you approach, and closely examine thefo- 
 
FINISH OF MINIMA. 167 
 
 liage of the trees, the grass with which the can- 
 vas is green, or even the limbs and features of 
 the animals, they will be found very coarsely and 
 incorrectly executed. The microscope turns the 
 most finished work of man into coarseness and 
 clumsiness — indeed, almost immediately carries 
 the sight where traces of skill have totally disap- 
 peared. Not so with the works of nature. A 
 real landscape you may analyze to your heart's 
 content, and inspect its details as critically as 
 eye armored with lens can do, without finding 
 the workmanship growing less exquisite the fur- 
 ther you push inquiry. A real man — you may 
 descend to the minutest particulars of his organi- 
 zation, and get as near its primary elements as 
 an Ehrenberg with his superb instruments and 
 practiced vision can carry you, without finding 
 the least falling off from that delicacy of execu- 
 tion which appears on the larger masses and out- 
 lines of the body. So everywhere among natural 
 objects — the great and the small, the outlines 
 and the minute filling-up, as far as utmost optical 
 resources can carry our observation, are wrought 
 with apparently the same overflowing outlay of 
 attention and skill. It is not so in a few instances 
 merely, nor in a thousand — it is so universally. 
 
 That there are any so preposterous as to think 
 that this feature of nature makes positively 
 against the idea of a sparrow-watching, hair-num- 
 bering, and thought-weighing God is, of course, 
 
168 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 not to be imagined. Of course, it is a feature 
 that fully harmonizes witli such an idea. A na- 
 ture finished exquisitely down to the most infinite* 
 imal of its details is just what one would have 
 predicted from a God of this description. An- 
 nounced the fact that He was about to create, 
 and expectation would have stood on tiptoe to look 
 for just such a nature as we see. A God for whose 
 vision nothing is too small, who necessarily gives 
 as complete attention to the affairs of an atom as 
 to those of an empire, who can concentrate his 
 almightiness with as much freedom and accuracy 
 on a mathematical point as on a world, who is 
 embarrassed no more by unlimited multiplicity 
 than by unlimited minuteness of details, who can 
 with equal ease paint a landscape on the point of 
 a needle — say, if you please, forty thousand of 
 such landscapes at once, w^ith all their innumera- 
 ble and minima particulars, back of the reticu- 
 lated eyes of a single butterfly — can with equal 
 ease do this, and roll a solar system on its tri- 
 umphant path about the Pleiades ; do I not know 
 that a being with such a striking attribute as this 
 would surely give it expression in his works ? Do 
 I not know that he who is equally at home in 
 maxima and minima, and to whom beauties and 
 glories in the world of infinitesimals would be just 
 as apparent and practicable as they are in the 
 world of infniites, would lay himself out on the 
 one very much as on the other — would effulge 
 
WISDOM OF NATURE. 169 
 
 himself into the microcosmos very much as into 
 the cosmos : When, then, I am told that such a 
 being is the author of nature, and I proceed to 
 place myself out under the open dome amid the 
 exquisite elaborations that swarm on every hand 
 down through the veriest miracles of littleness 
 and detail, and to uncover myself candidly to all 
 their subtle whisperings and magnetisms, I feel 
 myself softly drinking in predispositions to faith, 
 as the exposed fleece drinks in the dew, I so feel 
 the force of a doctrine matching facts, and but- 
 tressing itself again and again with comprehen- 
 sive verisimilitudes and presumptions, that to 
 me nature becomes articulate, and, instead of 
 swearing with uplifted hand that there is no 
 wondrous God, significantly points upward, and, 
 with bated breath and expectant look, asks, " Is 
 there not such a Being ? " — in fine, I feel that 
 our continued lifting of the veil from the paint- 
 ing has disclosed another characteristic of the 
 Great Master to whom the work is attributed, the 
 third of those several harmonies which, as suc- 
 cessively presented, warrant us in looking faith- 
 ward with ever-growing kindliness of aspect. 
 
 Another feature of Nature is what I shall call 
 its ivisdom. 
 
 The world is full of what, if accepted as the 
 work of an intelligent being, would be called con- 
 trivances — adaptations of means to ends — often 
 of the most complex and elaborate description. 
 
ITO SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 For example, the birds — how admirably adapted 
 to flying ; in shape, feathers, bones, wings 1 The 
 fishes — how adapted to swimming and life in the 
 water ; witness tlieir shape, tlieir smooth and 
 unctuous scales, their pairs of fins, their tails and 
 gills ! The land-animals — how adapted to walk- 
 ing and running and feeding on the earth's sur- 
 face ; to eat the grass or catch their special prey ! 
 The trees — how adapted to stand firmly ; by their 
 roots, their perpendicularity, their balanced 
 branches, their moderate flexibility — how adapt- 
 ed for shade, for abating the violence of winds, 
 for fuel ! Or, if you will consider particular or- 
 gans of the organic tribes, look at the bark of 
 trees as related to their nourishment, at the web- 
 foot in its double relation to land and water, at 
 the teeth and other preparers of food for the 
 stomach, at the stomach as. a preparer of food for 
 the blood, at the lungs as purifiers of the blood, 
 at the heart as the engine for forcing the blood to 
 all parts of the system, at the hand as the general 
 servant of the whole body ; in short, at almost any 
 organ of either animal or vegetable structures. 
 The adaptations are wonderful. They are physi- 
 cal miracles — the means are shaped and applied 
 to the ends so exactly, beautifully, triumpliantly. 
 For example, no work of human ingenuity that 
 ever you saw is equal to that natural marvel, tlie 
 human eye — an organ having reference to an 
 element quite external to itself, whose chief source 
 
WISDOM OF NATURE. 171 
 
 is millions of leagues distant ; and also to millions 
 of external objects which compose our scenery of 
 earth and sky — an organ placed in the most ele- 
 vated part of the body so as to command the most 
 extensive prospect ; placed in the front so as most 
 readily to preside over the direction in which we 
 habitually move ; placed in a strong bony socket 
 which defends it from the heavier external in 
 juries ; imbedded in a soft cushion, so that its del 
 icate texture can not be hurt by the bony walls 
 around it, as it rests on them, and turns swiftly 
 hither and thither at the bidding of the will ; 
 furnished with lids, like curtains, to close over it 
 in sleep, to wipe it, to cut off the outer rays of 
 light that would confuse vision, to protect it by 
 their involuntary and instantaneous shutting 
 against the lighter kind of injuries ; furnished 
 with an apparatus of muscles by which it can be 
 rapidly turned at choice in any direction, so as to 
 vary the field of vision as the needs of life may 
 suggest ; furnished with a self-acting system of 
 appliances by which the ball is kept lubricated for 
 easy movement; furnished with a conduit to 
 carry off the superfluous moisture ; furnished 
 with just that shape, out of ten thousand possible 
 shapes, which mathematicians have demonstrated 
 to be the only one which can refract all the rays 
 of light to a single surface, and thus afford dis- 
 tinct vision, viz., that of an ellipsoid of revolu- 
 tion ; furnished with a retina or natural canvas 
 
172 SrXTH LECTURE. 
 
 on which its pictures of external objects can be 
 formed, of just the right size, and at just the right 
 distance behind the lenses of the eye; furnished 
 witli lenses of different substances having differ- 
 ent refractive powers, thereby preventing the light 
 from being resolv^ed into the prismatic colors, and 
 thus misrepresenting and uniforming objects ; fur- 
 nished in front with a perforated membrane that 
 by self-adjustment adapts it to different degrees 
 of light, also with a system of pulleys and liga- 
 ments that at a moment's warning alter its con- 
 vexity and the relative position of parts so as 
 to adapt it to objects at different distances and, 
 wliat is more wonderful than all, provided in 
 some inscrutable manner with the means of ex- 
 pressing the mind itself, so that one may look into 
 its crystal depths and see intellectuality and scorn 
 and wrath and love, and almost every spiritual 
 state and action. Now, if 'this is not an amazing 
 congeries of adaptations, there is and can be noth- 
 ing amazing. If found to be the work of a human 
 artist, it would be called a perfect marvel of in- 
 genuity and wisdom. And yet some insects have 
 twenty thousand such eyes combined into one. 
 But the eye is only one among an infinity of 
 natural contrivances. Animate and inanimate 
 nature is mountainous and glittering with them. 
 Down into tlie regions of the infinitely small, 
 whither only the most searching microscopes car- 
 ry the sight ; up into the regions of the infinitely 
 
WISDOM OF NATURE. 173 
 
 large and far, whither only mightiest telescopes 
 lift our struggling knowledge ; among the mech 
 anisrns of the atomic nations that people a sin- 
 gle leaf, and among the mechanisms of those 
 swarming celestial empires whose starry banners 
 sweep our nightly skies — it is everywhere the 
 same ; exquisite adaptations crowding exquisite 
 adaptations, profound contrivances (so inven- 
 tors and mechanicians would be tempted to call 
 them) heaped on profound contrivances, in such 
 endless amounts and varieties of wise structure, 
 as exhausts all human understanding and dwarfs 
 into nothingness all the products of human in- 
 genuity. 
 
 Does such a nature as this swear against a 
 Divine Contriver. Does it protest against him, or 
 testify against him, or breathe even a suspicion 
 against him ? Many absurd things are done in the 
 world : but it will be hard to find the man who will 
 care to deny the positive and emphatic harmony 
 between the doctrine of an omniscient and omnip- 
 otent God and a universe crowded with such 
 splendors of natural mechanics. A God of end- 
 less invention, and v^hose powerful and skilled 
 hands can magnificently realize all that he has 
 magnificen?tly planned — we should expect that 
 such a being, in case he should create a nature, 
 would set it all ablaze with the monuments of 
 his supreme intelligence and power — should be 
 disappointed to find no such monuments, but, in 
 
174 SIXTH LRCTURE. 
 
 their stead, mere stupidity or tameness of work. 
 We should call the work uuworthy of the work- 
 man. Nay, we should hasten to say to ourselves 
 that we must have mistaken him — He could 
 really be nothing more than such a petty divinity 
 as the poor heathen have fabled to themselves. 
 For we should be sure that one having unlimited 
 command of ways and means, both as a knower 
 and worker, would display it in his works. It 
 being just as easy for him to have exquisite 
 adaptations, and a gloriously endless variety of 
 them, as to have no adaptations at all — it is 
 plain what sort of nature he ought to make and 
 would make. Now let me be told of a framer of 
 nature in whom are hid all the treasures of wis- 
 dom and knowledge, whose light has in it no dark- 
 ness at all, whose smallest deeds have from the 
 hoary everlasting been pavilioned and charioted 
 toward being amid the glories of Almighty Om- 
 niscience ; and I then place myself out under 
 the open dome mid the wilderness of wonderful 
 constructions and cliemistries, and candidly un- 
 cover myself to all tlieir subtle sympathies and 
 magnetisms — I feel niyself, all silently, drinking 
 in predispositions to faith, as the exposed fleece 
 drinks in the dew. I feel that the God who is af- 
 firmed is just the God to match the nature which 
 I see — here the ball and tliere the socket, here 
 tlie foot Titanic and there its footprint, here the 
 sliapely hand and there its glove, here the sover- 
 
POWER OF NATURE. 175 
 
 eign sword and there the golden scabbard that just 
 fits it — that these noble adaptations and mechan- 
 isms, spangling and blazoning all the fields of 
 matter, are in rejoicing sympathy with the idea 
 of a Creator who is wonderful in counsel and ex- 
 cellent in working ; tliat the alabaster-box of 
 precious wisdom that has been emptied, not only 
 on the queenly head and shining tresses of Na- 
 ture but on her very feet, scents bravely of One 
 who is himself a " mountain of such spikenard ;'* 
 that, in fact, the theory is again smiled upon 
 by a comprehensive verisimilitude and presump- 
 tion ; that Nature, instead of swearing with 
 uplifted hand that there is no All-wise Creator, 
 with flushed cheek and upward-glancing eye of 
 expectation, significantly asks, " Is there not such 
 a Being ? " In fine, I feel that our continued 
 lifting of the veil from the painting has disclosed 
 still another characteristic of the Great Master 
 to whom the work is attributed ; has cleared up 
 another stretch of that vista at the end of which 
 is Titian at his easel — the fourth of those several 
 harmonies, which, as successively presented, war- 
 rant us in looking faithward with ever-growing 
 kindliness of aspect. 
 
 Another striking feature of Nature is its power. 
 
 No contemptible degree of force resides in the 
 
 .•nuscles of some men — the Samsons and Milos 
 
 of their time. Huge rocks are lifted, tough oaks 
 
 are riven, great structures are siiaken down by 
 
176 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 their hands. Many brute animals display still 
 greater muscular strength ; witness the elephant, 
 and those gigantic mammals which towered 
 and ruled over the post-tertiary savannas. A 
 combination of animal forces with what are called 
 the mechanical powers often generates measures 
 of force more striking still ; and when men stand 
 by such piles as the Egyptian pyramids, they are 
 deeply impressed with the prodigious uplift that 
 must have put those mighty blocks in their high 
 places. But it is to inanimate nature that we 
 must go for our most brilliant examples of phys- 
 ical force. What power in the wind, when, as a 
 tornado, it sweeps along at more than one hun- 
 dred miles an hour ; demolishing mansions, up- 
 rooting forests, and lifting ponderous ships far in- 
 land on their eddies 1 What power in the ocean- 
 swell as it tosses an entire navy to the skies with 
 apparently as much ease as if it were a single 
 cockle-shell ! — What is this that comes rushing 
 through the landscape with smoky breath and 
 thunderous step, dragging thousands of tons at 
 the pace of winds ? Within that flying iron cra- 
 ter is imprisoned one of nature's brawniest forces, 
 steam — throwing off feats of toil with its vaporous 
 arms, which arms of flesh and blood have never 
 even been fabled to do. — What have we here ? A 
 few barrels filled with very simple black grains. 
 One has but to drop a spark among them to wit- 
 ness a sudden development of power that shall 
 
POWER OF NATURE. 177 
 
 deafen earth and heaven with its voice, and lift a 
 city into mid-air. — Would you see a mightier 
 energy still ? It is the year 1755. An unwonted 
 trembling stirs the air and ground of Lisbon. In 
 a few moments the broad city is in heaps. The 
 plain around runs in waves, like the sea when 
 lashed by a tempest. See — the distant moun- 
 tain-ranges themselves impetuously shake and 
 rend and topple ; Europe, to the Highlands of 
 Scotland, heaves ; heaves Africa ; heaves the 
 whole broad Atlantic, with all its huge gravi- 
 ties, from the Pillars of Hercules to the New 
 World ! When . oceans and continents are so 
 tossed and shot aloft, what stalwart shoulders of 
 gas and steam and fire are heaving at the mighty 
 burden! Other forces among us are not small ; but 
 this of the earthquake is easy king over all these 
 terrestrial children of pride. Terrestrial, I say : 
 but there are forces not terrestrial which are of a 
 still huger and loftier pattern — celestial forces, 
 to which those of our earth are what the bubble- 
 globules of the children are to the globed worlds 
 of space. When such a planet as Jupiter is 
 moving at the rate of some thirty thousand miles 
 an hour ; when such a sun as ours is moving at 
 the rate of some three thousand miles a minute ; 
 when such a nebula as our Milky Way, with its 
 eighteen millions of suns, goes wheeling at the 
 same average speed about its center of gravity 
 — there is a momentum for you, a magazine 
 
178 
 
 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 of force by the side of which earthquakes are 
 puny, and all the stormy winds that ever blus- 
 tered and fought iu their fabled caves mere zeros ! 
 Some say that there is but one force in all nature 
 — none perhaps more apt to say it than the 
 rejecters of the supernatural — that the forces 
 which pump and assimilate and reject in every 
 blade of grass and leaf and animal fiber ; the 
 forces that throb in every ray of light and heat 
 and electricity and magnetism, the forces that 
 swell and toil in every atom of matter, the me- 
 chanical forces, the chemical forces, the spiritual 
 forces, the forces here and the forces yonder to 
 the universe's last suburb — that all these forces, 
 with their incomprehensible sum-total of simul- 
 taneous impulses, are, after all, but branches of 
 one great central force pushing outward in an in- 
 finite variety of directions and forms. If this is 
 so — and who is competent *to positively deny it — 
 what a single force that is which can diffuse itself 
 over so immense an area, and divide itself so in- 
 finitely, and yet thunder away at special points 
 with such marvelous and terrible energy ! If 
 this is not so, still what a wondrous hive of 
 swarming and independent dynamics in this wide 
 pature of ours ! 
 
 Of course, no one could have the hardihood to 
 say that a nature stocked with such energies as 
 these makes positively againd the doctrine of a 
 Creator who is himself an Almighty Force. On 
 
POWER OF NATURE. 170 
 
 the contrary, there is a U^iQwdAy harmony between 
 the doctrine and the fact. Were we to find in 
 actual existence a Personal Power to whom noth- 
 uig is impossible, and learn that he is about to 
 produce a universe, we should expect to see pro 
 duced just such a wonderfully strong nature as wo 
 actually have — a nature peopled with strengths, 
 momenta, brawny agencies of most imposhig forms 
 and magnitudes. A weak system, a system that 
 is puny in its operations and trifling in its effects, 
 would misrepresent him — shall I not say, would 
 be unworthy of him ? Most persons would cer- 
 tainly call it unsuitable ; would say that his 
 very nature as an Infinite Power would demand 
 of him that he should produce a system that 
 would be continually turning out the greatest re- 
 sults, and so must include forces of the greatest 
 efficiency. When, then, I am told that a Sublime 
 Force, who has Almighty for his name, is the au- 
 thor of nature ; and I then proceed to place my- 
 self out under the open dome amid the pulsings 
 and tossings of innumerable and sometimes im- 
 measurable momenta, and so lay myself honestly 
 open to all their subtle hints and magnetisms; I 
 feel myself silently drinking in predispositions to 
 ^aith as the exposed fleece drinks in the dew — I 
 feel that the doctrine matches facts ; that the as- 
 serted creator and creation fit each other as do 
 the die and the face of the coin which it has 
 stamped ; that the theory has at least the bene- 
 
180 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 diction of yet another verisimilitude and presvimp- 
 tion ; that Nature, instead of making oath with se- 
 rene brow and uplifted hand, that there is no won- 
 drous God, significantly asks, with abashed voice, 
 "Is there 7iot such a Being?" — in fine, I feel 
 that, as the veil continues to rise from the face of 
 the paiiiting, it reveals still another characteristic 
 of the Great Master, clears up another stretch of 
 that vista which conducts the sight toward Titian 
 bending over his canvas — the fifth of those sever- 
 al harmonies which, as successively presented, 
 warrant us in looking faithward with ever-grow- 
 ing kindliness of aspect. 
 
 Another feature of Nature is its remarkable re- 
 lation to laio. 
 
 Notice law and its exceptions — the general 
 steadfastness of modes of being and action in na- 
 ture, and the occasional breaches in that stead- 
 fastness. 
 
 On the earth's surface, in its dark interior, in 
 the air and vault above, in tlie instant present and 
 the ancient past — everywhere, law waves its 
 mighty scepter. Atoms and masses, the ponder- 
 ables and inponderables, the organic and inor- 
 ganic, the living and dead — all are evidently 
 subjected in their modes of being and action to 
 certain fixed rules, sometimes particular, but 
 more often covering whole classes of objects. 
 Not a particle floats at random or as a unit : not 
 a leaf grows or falls save according to rigid gene- 
 
'tELATION TO LAW. 181 
 
 ral principles of science. All chemical elements 
 have their modes and measures of combination to 
 which they steadfastly adhere. All heat, electri- 
 city, magnetism, gravity, act according to abiding 
 methods which philosophers have gradually dis- 
 covered and arranged into the sciences of natural 
 philosophy. The great processes of vegetable and 
 animal life proceed after the same forms and steps, 
 from age to age. The stone beds of the world are 
 formed and modified in certain set ways which 
 are the same now as in the periods anterior to 
 man. Even the weather, so often called fickle, 
 has its stable methods ; almost every year bring- 
 ing to light some new general fact in meteorology, 
 or extending the application of an old one. Day 
 and night succeed each other, every twenty-four 
 hours, without variation. The seasons do not 
 change their order or general character. All of 
 Kepler's and Newton's laws are as operative to- 
 day as they ever have been since their discovery. 
 The planets shoot round the sun and are circled 
 by their own moons, on substantially the same 
 elliptical orbits, in the same times, and with the 
 same principles of alternate retardation and accel- 
 eration as of old. All known changes in the plan- 
 etary orbits have been found to be bound in a 
 law of periodicity which is apparently invariable. 
 So beyond the solar system. Law still ; nothing 
 ")ut law ; law everywhere on ten thousand bia- 
 sing thrones ; largely the same laws that prevail 
 
182 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 in our own system ! As far as we can observe -^ 
 and it is no little that has been observed — those 
 distant orbs reverence the various principles of 
 gravitation and mechanics, and keep as rigidly to 
 their behests, as when the earliest astronomy gazed 
 at tliem from its rude Uraniberg of a hill-top. 
 And every man of science is well persuaded that, 
 could his observation alight on particular orbs of 
 those remote and twinkling hosts, he would find 
 their minutest details bound up in the chains of 
 the same adamantine regularity that rules our 
 own globe. 
 
 So in general we speak. But we must not be 
 understood to speak with absolute precision of 
 language. In this wide scene of steadfast ar- 
 rangements, there are outbreaks of anomaly — 
 ruptures and rents and dislocations in the habits 
 and ongoings of nature, like those in the strata 
 of the earth. It is a settled law of nature that 
 like shall produce like ; yet from perfect animals 
 and vegetables occur occasional monstrosities of 
 organization. It is a settled course of nature 
 that certain substances, called poisons, if freely 
 introduced into animal systems, destroy life ; yet 
 now and then a man is found who is even nour- 
 ished by these agents of destruction. It is a fixed 
 mode of nature that frost withers flat foliage ; yet 
 the flat leaves of the wild laurel flourish out our 
 hardest winters. It is a fixed way of nature that 
 the heavenly bodies move in ellipses ; yet there 
 
RELATION TO LAW. 183 
 
 is reason to believe that some comets have been 
 found moving on the curve called a parabola. 
 The steadfast habit of nature is against a general 
 planetary deluge, or conflagration, or glacier- 
 period, or destructive convulsion ; yet such disas- 
 ters, if geology may be trusted, have several times 
 occurred, at immense intervals, in the history of 
 our own planet. Great exceptional events ; 
 phenomena without fellows through an astonish- 
 ing stretch of ages ; what have the appearance 
 of broad fractures and dislocations of nature, 
 though in reality they may be the rare resultants 
 and accumulations of innumerable natural forces 
 and laws crossing each other in all directions ; 
 the entire destruction and rehabilitation of animal 
 and vegetable species — such events have taken 
 place on this globe again and again. Repeatedly 
 has the earth been drowned and torn in pieces. 
 It has been piled with snow and ice from pole to 
 pole. It has been all ablaze and fused. And is 
 it not on. the idea of such a conflagration that we 
 can best account for the new stars that have some- 
 times flashed suddenly on the sight with all the 
 splendor of Venus at its brightest, and, after a 
 few months of changing color and gradual decay, 
 finally disappeared ? Thus in the bosom of a 
 general steadfastness are found occasional out- 
 breaks of anomaly. It is as among the geologic 
 strata — where are found faults, dislocations, fis- 
 sures, and even reversions of those great rock- 
 
184 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 beds which in general are laid down on a plan of 
 utmost regularity. The course of nature is like 
 some great thoroughfare, which advances through 
 great distances without the slightest solution of 
 its continuity, but at last finds a great river thrust 
 squarely across its track. On this side the thor- 
 oughfare, on that side the thoroughfare, and here 
 the broad, deep flow of the bridgeless river — 
 a river worth to the public, it may be, many 
 times what the perfect continuity of the road 
 would be. 
 
 Now this much is certain. No one can say that 
 this characteristic of nature makes positively 
 against such a steadfast and yet miracle-working 
 God as is affirmed in the Christian Scriptures. 
 Instead of opposition, there is positive harmony 
 between the fact and the doctrine. Indeed, such 
 a nature as is observed is just what one would 
 have expected to come from such a Creator as is 
 taught. Nay, as general laws are necessary to 
 make science possible, to enable men tq forecast 
 and profit by experience, to serve as a basis for all 
 comprehensive business and for all civil govern- 
 ment — as the broader and profounder the intel- 
 ligence, the more it is pleased with and tends to 
 work by general principles, we may say that the 
 very nature and circumstances of Deity would de- 
 mand of him, in case he should create, to create a 
 generally steadfast, law-abiding universe. At the 
 same time, a miracle-worker — one who sees acer- 
 
RELATION TO LAW. 185 
 
 tain essential imperfection and intractability in 
 seccid causes, preventing their matching on all 
 occasions the perfection of his ideas ; who, more- 
 over, sees it undesirable to allow mere nature to 
 hide its Maker altogether behind its swarming 
 screen, and give to the ideas of necessity and fatal- 
 ity full sweep in human minds — I say, such a 
 being would be under a loud call to provide in the 
 constitution and course of nature such sugges- 
 tions and prophecies of miracles as would gradu- 
 ally, though perhaps unconsciously to them, pre- 
 pare the minds of men for those crowning 
 abnormals of the system. He must have the 
 glory of his personal agency glimmer through 
 occasional rents in the uniformity of nature. 
 An anomaly-sprinkled, miracle-suggesting, as well 
 as stable, universe must proceed from his won- 
 drous hand. He would be in conflict with 
 himself were he to produce any other. And 
 when I am told of one who is actually just 
 this sort of divinity — both law and miracle : 
 both giver and keeper to an almost infinite 
 extent of moral laws which shall not pass away ; 
 while his iron will, throned as supremely in 
 the realm of matter as of morals, yet launches 
 forth into special providences and miracles on 
 extraordinary occasions — when I am told of 
 him, and I then place myself out under the 
 open dome amid the massive but occasionally 
 rifted uniformities, and open myself freely to all 
 
1 86 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 their subtle hints and magnetisms, I feel myself 
 softly drinking in predispositions to faith, as the 
 exposed fleece drinks in the dew. I feel that the 
 doctrine and the facts arc at one ; that the asserted 
 Creator and the observed creation fit each other 
 as do the signet and the seal just stamped ; tliat 
 another verisimilitude spreads blessing, if trem- 
 ulous, hand over the theory ; that Nature in- 
 stead of sonorously swearing that there is no 
 Divine Being whose double name is Law and Mira- 
 cle, significantly asks, with abashed and startled 
 tones, " Is there not such a Being ? " In fine, I 
 feel that, as the veil continues to rise from the face 
 of the painting, it reveals still another character- 
 istic of the Great Master, clears up another stretch 
 of that vista which conducts the sight toward 
 Titian bending over his canvas — the sixth of 
 those several harmonies which, as successively pre- 
 sented, warrant us in looking faithward with ever- 
 growing kindliness of aspect. 
 
 Another feature of Nature is its wonderful re- 
 lation to thne and motion. 
 
 How long has our race existed ? The infidel 
 may choose to say a hundred thousand years ; 
 none will say less than six thousand. How long 
 has the earth itself existed ? The atheist may 
 choose to say. Forever. The geologist, thinking 
 of his coal beds and deltas and rocky strata sown 
 with the bones of extinct species, and of the time 
 requisite for their formation, is sure of several 
 
RELATION TO TIME AND MOTION. 187 
 
 hundred thousand years. How long are the 
 earth and its confederates in the solar system 
 calculated to endure ? Geometry declares that 
 no element of decay within endangers the sta- 
 bility of the system of the world. That year 
 wliicli circumscribes our seasons is only three 
 hundred and sixty-five days ; but the earth has 
 another year to which this is a mere point — its 
 pole goes nodding through space in a circle which 
 it takes twenty-five thousand years to traverse. 
 What think you of a planet whose winter is more 
 than forty of our years, of a comet whose year is 
 more than thirty of our centuries, of a sun whose 
 year is more than eighteen thousand of our mil- 
 lenniums? All the planetary orbits pass through 
 cycles of changes varying in length from a few 
 centuries to nine thousand, to seventy thousand, 
 to even many million years ; but the greatest of 
 these planetary cycles are as nothing compared 
 with those enormous periods which bound the 
 perturbations and express the secular equations 
 of the sun and fixed stars — periods including 
 more years than imagination has ever succeeded 
 in realizing to itself. What amazing longevities I 
 What portentous numerals ! They are hiero- 
 glyphics of the everlasting. They lift us among 
 the dizziest peaks of the sublime. 
 
 These immense periods, interspersed with others 
 exceedingly small, sometimes express an exceed- 
 ingly slow movement among the powers of nature. 
 
188 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 In other cases, the movement with which they 
 are connected is exceedingly rapid. The times 
 consumed in the formation of the coal-beds and 
 rock-strata, and in the long perturbations of the 
 planetary and stellar orbits, are examples of the 
 first class of periods ; the years of the planets and 
 stars in their orbits are examples of the second. 
 In the first class, natural forces creep along to 
 their objects with miraculous slowness ; in the 
 other, they flash along with swiftness equally 
 astounding. Some orbits gradually lengthen 
 themselves, say an inch in a thousand years. 
 Some of the stars dart along their year of one 
 Imndred and eighty thousand centuries at the in- 
 comprehensible rate of one hundred and eighty 
 thousand miles an hour. Could we plant our- 
 selves immovably at a certain point in the celes- 
 tial spaces, and see our sun go sailing by with all 
 its glorious squadrons of* planets and moons — 
 sailing down the abyss as if driven by ten thou- 
 sand hurricanes — would not the sight of such 
 celerity almost irrecoverably daze both senses and 
 spirit ? 
 
 If, now, one should start vip to say that these 
 great cycles, imbosoming unutterable extremes 
 of movement, makes positively against an Eter- 
 nal God who is able to move to his purpose like 
 the light or at a rate so trifling as to bo quite im- 
 perceptible by human senses, we should laugh liis 
 logic to scorn. We know better. These are facts 
 
RELATION TO TIME AND MOTION. J 89 
 
 that palpably a^ree with such a theism. Instead 
 of contradicting it, they express a state of things 
 that miglit liave been expected from a being who 
 has both unlimited time and unlimited speed at 
 his disposal — who, if he chooses to wait, has 
 never occasion to haste ; or, if he chooses to haste, 
 has never occasion to wait — who is alike able to 
 dart on his purpose as if infinite whirlwinds were in 
 his wings, or to approach it at a rate so minute that 
 no human sense can discern the movement in the 
 lapse of generations. Suppose such a God to be 
 about to create a nature^ could you not confidently 
 predict after this manner — " This Being of mighty 
 periods will establish migiity periods : this Being 
 who can readily proceed on his endlessly varied de- 
 signs, at all imaginable and unimaginable rates of 
 speed, will diversify liis worlds with all the veloci- 
 ties." A God who himself has no duration to speak 
 of — if there may be such a God — would never 
 have stored his nature with such mighty cycles; a 
 God who himself never did a swift thing would 
 never have set his laws to spurring on planets and 
 suns so astoundingly ; a God who himself never 
 did a slow thing would never have yoked such 
 slow-footed forces to events, as we observe actually 
 dragging at some of them. It is only a God who 
 has substantial forevers on his hands, and who on 
 occasion can lighten and on occasion can linger 
 ineffably along the highway of his purposes, who 
 is properly represented by such a nature. In case 
 
190 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 he gives any nature at all, his character demands 
 of him to give just this — one expressing his own 
 attributes. So when I am told of one whose lon- 
 gevity is eternity, whose orbit of existence has an 
 infinite axis, who readies an Atonement after 
 slowly beating toward it for forty centuries, who 
 is ages and dispensations in establishing his king- 
 dom in the world, who commonly approaches the 
 punishment of sinners with steps lingering through 
 numberless delays and forbearances, and who yet 
 sometimes yokes steeds of wind and fire and foam 
 to his car — as when some Korah and his com- 
 pany go down quick into the pit ; or some Uzziah, 
 profanely grasping an ark, falls dead ; or some 
 Ananias and Sapphira, lying to the Holy Ghost, are 
 rushed to judgment in an instant's brief space — • 
 when I am told of such a God creating nature ; 
 and I then betake myself abroad under the open 
 dome amid those swarming and wondrous orbits 
 of time, now scarred and smoking with the hot 
 hoofs of electric forces, and now pressed by the 
 velvety and trackless feet of forces born of the 
 snail ; and frankly lay myself open to all their 
 subtle hints and magnetisms — I feel myself silent- 
 ly drinking in faith, as the exposed fleece drinks 
 in the dew — I feel that there is a significant 
 matching of what we are taught with what we 
 observe ; that such theism is on most excellent and 
 embracing terms with Nature, which, so far from 
 saying with uplifted, oath-making hand, ' that 
 
M7STERI0USNESS OF NATURE. I9l 
 
 there is no Eternal God who, as an agent, is equally 
 at home in an instant and an age,' at least stands 
 tremulously querying, " Is there not such a Be- 
 ing ? " — in fine, I feel that, as the veil continues to 
 rise from the face of the painting, it reveals still 
 another characteristic of the Great Master, clears 
 up another stretch of that vista which conducts 
 the sight on Titian painting away suhlimely at his 
 glowing and glorified landscape — the seventh of 
 those several harmonies which, as successively 
 presented, warrant us in looking faith ward with 
 ever-growing kindliness of aspect. 
 
 Another feature — the mysteriousness of Na- 
 ture. 
 
 Who does not know it ? — terrestrial nature 
 is one huge sphinx. She vomits enigmas on us 
 in seas. Riddles too profound for the highest 
 science yet in our possession lurk in every ray 
 of light, in every blade of grass, in every rudest 
 stone. Only some of the coarser facts in rela- 
 te ti^n to a few things here and there, have been 
 picked up and systematized ; and these are what 
 compose our boasted sciences. Prom surface to 
 center, the earth is choked with mysteries whose 
 stony rind has never yet received a blow, much 
 less a fracture, from the mallet of investigations 
 Come now, ye great Computers, compute for us 
 how long it will be before the science, which loses 
 itself at the very threshold of the complexities 
 of this world, will be able to swoop down with 
 
192 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 triumphant wing upon the surfaces and to the 
 fiery centers of those fellow planets that myste- 
 riously weave and interweave paths across the 
 concave, and thoroughly solve the problem of all 
 their swarming contents ! A disorderly maze 
 are the apparent paths of the members of our 
 solar system ! But you say that the real paths 
 are not as intricate as the apparent. Take your 
 stand, then, at the sun, and observe planets and 
 comets going and coming at all distances and 
 rates of velocity and directions ; while around 
 most of the larger planets are similarly movmg, 
 other systems of satellites — is it not an intricate 
 as well as a brave sight ? Can you see through 
 the mazy plan ? But you say that it has been 
 seen through, and planetariums have been made 
 that clearly represent the whole thing to us with- 
 in a few feet of space. How many centuries 
 and philosophers, Copernicus — Copernicus, I 
 say, away yonder in the deptlis of four hundred 
 years ago — did it take to make that orrery and 
 solve that riddle of the system of the world ? 
 Indeed, it is yet very far from solution. Astron- 
 omers can only completely account for the move- 
 ments of a system of two bodies. A system of 
 three is quite beyond them ; one of a hundred 
 and more bodies, like our solar system, immeasur- 
 ably beyond them. There is not even a hope 
 that science, with all its dynamical calculuses, 
 ^i\\ ^ver overtake this higher problem. But 
 
MYSTERIOUSNESS OF NATURE. 193 
 
 there is a higher problem still. Solar system 
 revolves around solar system; a group of such 
 systems around a similar group ; a cluster of 
 such groups around a similar cluster ; a firma- 
 ment of such clusters around a similar firmament. 
 Indeed, as we have seen, the whole universe of 
 stars, with all the countless fleets of planets and 
 moons which they represent, must, according to 
 the law of gravity, revolve about a last center of 
 centers. Let us go to it. Standing at this 
 Heaven — for is not this the dazzling metropolis 
 where dwells the sublime Cesar of the creation — 
 standing at this wondrous point, and looking 
 forth on the countless nebulae coming and going 
 at all imaginable distances, speeds, and direc- 
 tions — lo, what a glorious scene of bewilder- 
 ment and unsearchable complexity ! It fairly 
 takes away our breath to look. There is no 
 more spirit left in us. If a system of three 
 bodies is too much for the most subtle and com- 
 prehensive science yet known, what can ever be 
 done by all coming generations and geniuses, 
 however imperial, toward mastering such laby- 
 rinthian immensity of involved orbs ? 
 
 Now hearken to the Christian Scriptures — 
 affirming a Maker of nature who is himself the 
 mightiest of all enigmas. " Yerily, thou art a 
 God that hidest thyself — Canst thou by searching 
 find out God ; canst thou find out the Almiglity 
 to perfection — It is high as heaven; what canst 
 
194 StXTB LECTURE. 
 
 thou do : deep as hell ; what canst thou know? " 
 Does the aspect of nature contradict this doc- 
 trine ? Who will presume to deny that the in- 
 comprehensible materialism about us, to say 
 nothing of the more incomprehensible spiritual- 
 ism within us, is just what one would expect to 
 find issuing from the hands of an incomprehensi- 
 ble Creator — a being mysteriously without a 
 beginning, mysteriously self-existent, mysteriously 
 able to make the greatest and noblest things out 
 of nothing by simple volition, mysteriously all- 
 knowhig, mysteriously unfettered in the appli- 
 cation of his power and knowledge by all con- 
 ditions of space and duration and personal 
 presence, mysteriously Three in One — in short, 
 a being enveloped in a terrible pomp and majesty 
 of sunset-clouds, whose broken lines never per- 
 mit the orb that glorifies them to appear, even 
 for a moment, in clear and golden contour on 
 our rapt sight. Such a being, setting out to 
 create, would be likely to give us the present 
 enigmatic universe, nay — for why state the mat- 
 ter so feebly — would be sure to give it. Like 
 every otlier copious author, he would reproduce 
 his own traits. An unutterable sphinx himself, 
 his creatures would be sphinxes. A nature from 
 the hands of God that I can comprehend, or 
 make any approach to comprehending — prepos- 
 terous ! A creation that to me, with my low 
 place and filmy vision and narrow orbit, is not 
 
MYSTERIOUSNESS OF NATURE. V^'^ 
 
 steeped in seas of mystery — preposterous ! If a 
 Jehovah build the temple of nature at all, he will 
 found it on mysteries, frame it with mysteries, 
 cover and dome it with mysteries, pillar and 
 ballast it with mysteries, pave and ceil it with 
 a mosaic of mysteries — surely he will. And 
 when I am told of a being whose own nature is 
 an overwhelming problem ; whose attributes have 
 no horizon, no zenith, and no nadir; whose ends 
 respect all possible objects and interests, and 
 spread themselves out in plans of boundless vast- 
 ness whose merest corners and differentials only 
 are visible to men of the widest scope : when I 
 am told of him, and I then place myself out un- 
 der nature's open dome, amid its Protean inscru- 
 tableness of leaf and star, of whole crowded earth 
 and circumventing heavens — the peopled heavens 
 where sweep in inextricable maze the hurricane 
 hosts of advancing and retreating orbs ; and open 
 my soul candidly to all their silent suggestions 
 and magnetisms — I feel myself drinking in faith, 
 as the fleece spread out under the stars drinks in 
 the dew — I feel that the facts give embracing 
 arms to the doctrine ; that the actual universe, 
 instead of swearing with decisive voice and hand 
 uplift to heaven that there is no inscrutable God, 
 significantly asks with panting whisper and color 
 that comes and goes, " Is there not such a Being ? " 
 In fine, I feel that our continued lifting of the 
 veil from the painting^has disclosed another char- 
 
196 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 acteristic of the great master to whom the work 
 is attributed ; has cleared up another stretch of 
 that vista which conducts the sight to Titian in 
 the act of glorifying his canvas into the Milanese 
 Coronation-Christ — another of those many har- 
 monies which, as successively presented, warrant 
 us in looking faithward with ever-growing kindli- 
 ness of aspect. 
 
 Such are the facts. I do not say, " Ex uno disce 
 omnes " — as does the naturalist sometimes when 
 he finds a bone. But I say, " Ex multis et maximis 
 disce omnes " — as does a Cuvier when he enthusi- 
 astically discovers nearly a complete skeleton. The 
 vestiges we have been viewing are no scant minims. 
 They are no few, narrow, disconnected particulars. 
 On the contrary, they are great genera — the con- 
 trolling outlines of the picture, the massive frame 
 of the edifice, the sovereign characteristics, the 
 leading facts and courses of Nature. As such they 
 give us, so to speak, an extensive taste of Nature. 
 They show us the grand whole, with what is a car- 
 dinal, and seems to be an essential, flavor. But we 
 are entitled to assume the self-consistency of Nature, 
 especially in regard to leading features. None so 
 forward to insist on this self-consistency as the 
 modern opponents of our natural theology. Indeed, 
 we only do what is the habit, and the unrebuked 
 habit, and, as we well know, the wondrously suc- 
 ?essful habit of all Baconian philosophers, when we 
 Voldly proceed on the ground that Nature is one. 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 197 
 
 and that according to what has been discovered 
 of her features is what remains to be discovered. 
 So we are allowed to make broad our conclusions. 
 So we are allowed to say of the integer what we 
 have said of the fraction. Instead of contenting 
 ourselves with affirming that her wisdom, and he^ 
 vastness, and her power, and many another trait 
 sympathizes with the doctrine of a God, we may 
 go 'on to say that Nature herself sympathizes wnth 
 the doctrine. She smiles upon it. She smiles, not 
 as a multum, nor as a majority, but as a total. 
 The whole picture is Titianic. The whole Cos- 
 mos is just as if made by God. We might go 
 on lifting the curtain from before her face ten, 
 twenty, never so many times, and always with 
 the same result. Never a break in the verdict. 
 Never a rise of the veil that says, " Lo, here the 
 facts are out of sympathy with the doctrine." 
 Never a trait of that queenly face comes drift- 
 ing into view to say, " Lo, here is something that 
 looks as if there were no God." For now some 
 thousands of years our natural knowledge has 
 been advancing, and the envious curtain has been 
 rising, step by step ; and never yet, I am bold 
 to say, has the observer, after carefully looking 
 on the picture without and carefully listening to 
 the voice within, ever heard any other words than 
 these : " Just as if made by God — Just as if made 
 by God ! " Should we go on lifting the curtain 
 till it is looped up to the very ceiling of the utter- 
 
198 SIXTH LECTURE. 
 
 most heaven, we should find all things in harmony 
 with that sonorous verdict that has already come 
 surging in upon us from the four cardinals, like so 
 many trade-winds : " Just as if — Just as if." Oh be 
 sure we may go on from speaking of the attitude of 
 parts of Nature to speaking of the attitude of Nature 
 herself I She, this modern goddess, is no enraged 
 Bellona, shaking her spear in the face of the doc- 
 trine. She is not even adverse after the softest 
 and sweetest-tempered Cyprian fashion. Her ways 
 are most kindly and cordial. She embraces the 
 doctrine. As w^e see ourselves pictured in the 
 glad, beaming eyes of the long-lost friend whom 
 we hold in our arms, so the Theism sees itself pic- 
 tured in the cordial eyes of embracing Nature. 
 Their voices chord. They are phone and anti- 
 phone. They are parts in the same rich chorus. 
 The doctrine is" merely the shadow which Nature 
 casts on a book. And I think I am modest in my 
 asking when I ask that so many and great verisimil- 
 itudes be considered as completely clearing the 
 ground for faith, and as standing at the open gate 
 of the judgment with bright and welcoming faces, 
 ready to grant possession at the first summons of 
 the positive evidence. I think I might reasonably 
 ask much more. I might lay stress on a great 
 difference between our case and that of the sup- 
 posed painting by Titian ; might point you to the 
 fact that whatever traits of that master are found in 
 that picture, are obviously such in nature and degree 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT 19& 
 
 as lie fiilly within the power of many a human na- 
 ture ; whereas many of those traits of Nature which 
 we have just come from viewing are presumptively 
 and enormously impossible to any agency short of a 
 Divine. But let this be waived. Let me only claim 
 that with every new harmony which the rising 
 curtain has discovered, ray mind has rationally 
 moved faithward : and that now, when these har- 
 monies have been found many and potential enough 
 to give character to the whole magnificent Out- 
 spread, my fleece, exposed through the long night 
 till full break of day, is rationally wringing wet 
 with the dew of predispositions to faith ; and that, 
 at least just as soon as the positive evidence pushes 
 its orb above the horizon, I may hold it fair and 
 scientific to allow each tiny drop to be trans- 
 figured from the silver of a predisposition to faith 
 into the gold of faith itself — making, as I think, 
 the true golden fleece of Colchis for modern times, 
 for which all Argos should sail and all heroes strive. 
 
VII. 
 
 NEED OF GOD. 
 
 Tot ©c/xcAta Tov ovpavov iaTrapdxOrjaav, 
 Ilavra Se Atos K€)(pr]ixi6a Travrcs. — AfiUuS, 
 
VII. Need of God. 
 
 t. POLARITIES OF CHARACTER aoj 
 
 a. PRACTICAL INFLUENCE OF FAITH 208 
 
 3. DIRECT DIVINE ACTION 223 
 
 4. TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT . . . . . . ., aa8 
 
SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 NEED OF GOD. 
 
 WE are not only beckoned toward Theism by 
 the harmonies between it and Nature, but 
 we are beckoned toward it even more strongly by 
 that crying Need of God which a little examina- 
 tion will discover. 
 
 It is a very striking thing — the general wish for 
 a God that exists among virtuous men. We seem 
 to see that, from the beginning till now, there never 
 has been a person who has honestly tried to follow 
 his conscience who has not honestly desired to find 
 Him a reality. And, the more conscientious and 
 exemplary the man has grown, the more unwilling 
 has he become to part with the idea of such a 
 Being with His universal and glorious providence. 
 There are persons who would as soon be without 
 God as not ; nay, there are those who could hardly 
 hear pleasanter news than that the whole Theistic 
 argument has been fairly overturned from the 
 foundation, and the impossibility of a God proved 
 beyond all possibility of denial. Oh, how scoffing 
 
/ 
 
 204 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 Voltaire and licentious Rousseau and bloated Paine 
 would have clapped their hands and shouted, could 
 they have fallen on some wonderful geometry 
 which by its rigid demonstrations could compel 
 even the most unwilling to give up their last plea 
 for Deity ! Oh, how the high-handed evil-doers 
 of every name, sinning and impetuously bent on 
 sinning, would congratulate themselves, could it be 
 made as plain as day that such a machine as a 
 thinking, embodied man was created by chance ; 
 that chance fitted up the earth as his convenient 
 home, and hung out the heavens above him with 
 the blazon of stars and suns ! But as soon as a 
 sinner has made up his mind con elusive Ij'- against 
 sin, and has fully committed himself for endless 
 war upon it in all its forms, then he ceases to be 
 averse or indifferent to the Divine existence ; then 
 he begins to positively like the idea, as including 
 that of a righteous Divine 'government ; then he 
 bemns to clino- to it, to bless it, to feel that he 
 cannot do without it ; and as he goes on to higher 
 and higher grades of virtue, the feeling in behalf of 
 God gradually deepens into a profound hunger and 
 thirst. He says, " My soul thirsts for God, for the 
 living God." To him an offer to disprove God 
 would be an offer to make the universe an awful 
 solitude and desert. 
 
 For, he looks around and sees all things waver- 
 ino; and chanmno; like the baseless fabric of a vision : 
 and even those things which seemed most solid and 
 
POLARITIES. 205 
 
 stable, and to which multitudes had ventured to 
 anchor themselves as to so much eternity, quietly 
 or violently slip away and dissolve and leave not a 
 rack behind. And is there nothing stable in this 
 shifting scene ? Is there no rock that lifts its head 
 high above the fluctuations, and shakes not, trem- 
 bles not, for aye, though all things rock and break 
 and die around ? Is there no one point of stability 
 around which poor man may gather his aflfections 
 and trusts and reverences and hopes without being 
 liable every moment to see his center vanish into 
 thin air ? At such a moment it is a great comfort 
 for him to look up and see, or think he sees, a God 
 of infinite goodness standing fast forever in the 
 wide sea of change — a still, green continent amid 
 the tossing ocean, under the lee of which the ship 
 may pass the night w^ithout fear of finding its shel- 
 ter gone in the morning, like a bank of clouds — a 
 pole-star that is always there, though every other 
 orb at least rises and sets. Here at last is repose — 
 here at length something to build upon. Here is a 
 friend who will never die — here a glorious provi- 
 dence that will never have done reignino- — here an 
 unspeakable lover who will never grow cold — here 
 the perpetual overruler of his mistakes and sins ; 
 enlightener of his conscience ; eradicator of his 
 depravity ; educator of Ids incompetency ; support 
 and consolation under his trials, come when and 
 where they may. For, in the time of distress, he 
 can look away to the righteous throne of the In- 
 
206 SEVENTH LECTURE 
 
 finite Disposer, and see stars seeding his darkness. 
 And when the hour is midnight, he is not unused to 
 say, " What should I do now without a God to go 
 to ? " He goes to God, and his heart is bound up. 
 And it is a gladness to feel that he can do this for- 
 ever, could his sorrow last so long; for his heart 
 sings amid its groans, " O Lord, Thy years are 
 throughout all generations." In fine, it is such a 
 comfort to have a God, that it would be day turned 
 to night were his Theism to become an atheism. 
 
 Now truth is kindred and polar to goodness ; and 
 so the desires of good men are most apt to harmo- 
 nize with and point at the truth. The most virtuous 
 have most affinity with the truth; are most free 
 from prejudices and intellectual obliquities ; are 
 the most fair-minded, earnest, and laborious in their 
 inquiries ; and so their opinions and tendencies to 
 opinions are most apt to be correct. — Also, the 
 mind when virtuous is in its s'oimdest and most nor- 
 mal state ; and the features which belong to the 
 whole class of virtuous minds, in proportion to their 
 virtue, are natural to the virtuous mind. But, on 
 observation, we find that there are, outside of this 
 case and two or three other mooted cases — such as 
 that of the desire for immortality — no desires natu- 
 ral to a sound human constitution for objects which 
 do not exist. Thus a desire for food, for friend- 
 ship, for knowledge, for reputation, for society, 
 for liberty, for freedom from pain, is natural to every 
 Bound human constitution ; and the object of each 
 
POLARITIES. ' 207 
 
 of these desires actually exists. The food exists 
 to meet the hunger ; tlie beauty exists to meet the 
 taste for beauty ; there is knowledge, society, health, 
 to meet the natural relish for each of these thinps. 
 Indeed, you cannot point out a single desire natu- 
 ral to a sound human nature to which there is not 
 an answering object somewhere ; but, on the con- 
 trary, such answering object is certainly known to 
 exist, outside of the two or three disputed cases, 
 like that under consideration. Hence we must 
 conclude that the desire for God, which is natural 
 to virtuous or normal minds, has over against it in 
 the outward universe such a God to fulfill it. — But 
 what I am more particularly concerned wdth at 
 present is the strong testimony which the attitude 
 of virtuous men toward Theism gives to the need 
 of God. The utmost we can be asked to allow, 
 in regard to the disposition of such men to believe 
 in God, is that it comes from a desire for such a 
 Being. They wish a God, and this feeling natu- 
 rally draws faith after it. The wish is father to 
 the thought. Supposing this to be so — supposing 
 that the whole case is reduced to one of desire 
 for a God — how comes such a desire to exist, to 
 exist in proportion to virtue, to exist in the most 
 virtuous as an intense craving ? Two answers can 
 be given. One is that such craving is the instinct- 
 ive aching of a great vacancy for a great supply : 
 the other is that the craving comes from an intel- 
 lectual judgment that a God is vastly desirable. 
 
208 SEVENTH LECTURE, 
 
 In both cases we liave human nature in its sound- 
 est state testifying loudly to the need of God ; in 
 the one case by its natural instincts, and in the 
 other by its intellectual convictions. And the need 
 testified to is organic, because it belongs to essential 
 human nature in its most normal state — is generic, 
 because it belongs to a great class of beings — is 
 most important in kind, because it belongs to the 
 most important of earthly beings in their most im- 
 portant relations. Whoever has virtue is Agamem- 
 non, king of men. When you see a fairly hung 
 vane straining away at the west as if a gale were 
 blowing from that quarter, make sure there sits the 
 wind. And when vou see our best and truest na- 
 ture pointing Godward with a snowy finger as de- 
 termined and intense as was ever chiseled out of 
 marble, make sure that a broad organic need of 
 God is invoking that motionless digit. 
 
 But the traveler may not only wish to be reliably 
 pointed in the direction of a great city ; he may 
 wish to advance, and see it with his own eyes. It 
 is thus his impression of it will become more cor- 
 -ect, vivid, and enduring. And we shall have that 
 Need of God which the polarities of good men 
 point at, directly under our eye, if we go on to con- 
 sider the practical influence of Theism. 
 
 It has been usual for leading unbelievers to con- 
 fess the excellent moral tendency of the doctrine of a 
 righteous Divine Ruler. And ask any man of ordi- 
 nary sense and observation, putting him on his honor 
 
INFLUENCE OF FAITH. 209 
 
 and conscience to speak frankly — ask him whether 
 he does not really think that a solid faith in such a 
 Being would, on the whole, be a greatly better 
 thing for his son and all connected with him than 
 disbelief or unbelief would be — what would be the 
 answer? He might not speak it, but ere a mo- 
 ment could elapse he would think it. " Practi- 
 cally," would he say to himself, " it is better that 
 my child should believe. Whatever may be the 
 abstract truth in the case, I cannot deny that 
 such a belief is likely to be followed by better re- 
 sults to himself and to all within his sphere of in- 
 fluence than the absence of that belief." And 
 could the ideas — perhaps exceedingly vague, 
 fragmental, and disordered — which form his rea- 
 sons for this view be formally drawn out and ex- 
 pressed, they might be found stated somewhat as fol- 
 lows : — " Character is the great interest of a man. 
 An unprincipled and wicked life is low, disgraceful, 
 and destructive. And it does not admit of reason- 
 able question that those believing in a righteous 
 Divine Ruler — that is, all who believe in God at 
 all — are under stronger moral restraints than 
 others; that the more profoundly society is im- 
 pressed with the conviction of an Infinite One above 
 it who loves righteousness and hates iniquity, and 
 will without fail hold men to account for their con- 
 duct and the secret evil of their hearts, the more 
 orderly and virtuous it will be. The bare presence 
 
 ♦■Q the mind of such an idea — of an idea so majes- 
 14 
 
210 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 tic and pure, so grand and lofty and thrilling, as 
 that of a God actually living and reigning, never 
 beginning and never ending, knowmg virtually all 
 things and powerful to do virtually all things, 
 true and just and good in the highest conceiv- 
 able degree, having for His sweet name Un- 
 fathomable and Shoreless Love — must tend pow- 
 erfully to educate the moral sense ; to expand, ele- 
 vate, and purify the soul. It can be nothing less 
 than one of the greatest of moral cultivators. 
 And, besides its power as a great and pure idea, 
 the conception of God as an actual existence must 
 have vast powder to restrain from evil and encourage 
 to good by the strong appeals it makes to the prin- 
 cipler of hope and fear. A sinner cannot steadily 
 look at the thought of a just God without trembling ; 
 and even a shadowy impression of such a Being 
 leaves a voice in the heart which says, ' Be warned : 
 if you are wise, you will cea-se to do evil.' A good 
 man cannot hold steadily before him the thought 
 of an Infinite Being taking account of every right 
 act and rejoicing over it, without brightly hoping : 
 and even a vague, embryonic impression of such a 
 Being leaves words in the heart which say, ' Blessed 
 be thou of the Lord ; go on and prosper.' The one 
 is restrained, and the other is encouraged — greatly 
 and necessarily. Without such restraint and encour- 
 agement, the water-line of morals in this world 
 would be far below its present level. Why, con- 
 sider what a God this is who men say reigns in 
 
INFLUENCE OF FAITH. 211 
 
 glory and righteousness everlasting ; and is he tc 
 whom this mighty Personality is a solemn reality 
 under no greater pressure to virtue than he to 
 whom such a Being is a fable or an uncertainty ? 
 Sure we are that there are few thoughtful men 
 who wpuld be so unreasonable as to think it. As 
 well almost might they think that objects on the 
 surface of the earth are just as likely to fly off 
 from it with as without the gigantic forces of 
 gravitation steadily drawing from all points toward 
 the center. No : from every point of view the 
 natural tendency of faith m such a God is toward 
 virtue, toward virtue only, toward virtue vastly. 
 And though it is true that moral beings, from their 
 very nature, are competent to so resist this natural 
 tendency as to make it the source of mcreased 
 guilt and misery, and often do so, yet in the ma- 
 jority of cases it will not be done. The more faith, \ 
 the more motive against sin ; the more motive 1 
 against sin a man has, the more likely he is to re- \ 
 strain it ; and, if the individual is more likely to j 
 restrain it, the community at large will actually re- 
 strain it better. Men universally act on the prin- 
 ciple that if they can make persons believe vividly 
 that it is their interest to take a certain course, the 
 effect in that direction will be favorable m a major- 
 ity of cases. These rational deductions are con- 
 firmed by observation. Comparing together large 
 communities, one observes that those are the most 
 orderly and moral in which faith in a righteous 
 
212 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 Divine Governor prevails to the greatest extent. 
 We have on record only one instance of a nation of 
 atheists ; and what a frightful state of disorder, de- 
 moralization, and terror accompanied the phenome- 
 non, the world, and especially Paris, will not soon 
 forget. Milton's description of Sin is not too strong 
 to suit atheistic France of the Revolution: 
 
 ' Seemed woman to the waist, and fair, 
 But ended foul in many a scaly fold 
 Voluminous and vast, a serpent arm'd 
 With mortal sting: about her middle round 
 A cry of hell-hounds never ceasing barked 
 With wide Cerberian mouths full loud, and rung 
 A hideous peal.' 
 
 No civilized people ever gave so bloody and foul a 
 chapter to history. May history never receive such 
 another ! Further, it is observable that individuals 
 with habitually very vivid and strong Theistic faith 
 are almost, if not quite, always very virtuous ; cer- 
 tainly very much more free from misconduct than 
 other persons. Nearly all positive rejecters of God, 
 and indeed nearly all professed skeptics as to Him, 
 known to the reading public, have been public lep- 
 ers both as to the principles and practice of common 
 morals — have fought against, not only the doctrine 
 of a God, but also the doctrine of moral distinctions 
 and all the ten commandments, both with their pens 
 and with their lives." 
 
 So might soliloquize almost any intelligent father. 
 On the basis of mere broken hints of such facts 
 he might well desire faith for his child. Which the 
 
INFLUENCE OF FAITH. 21 o 
 
 more friendly to virtue, faith or its absence — how 
 can he for a moment be at a loss how to answer the 
 question ? There can be no comparison between 
 the two. As motive to virtue one is everything, and 
 the other nothing. On the one hand you have a 
 giant statured like the demigods of fable, clothed 
 in prodigious sinew and brawn, and making the 
 earth and its starry dome to shake at every step — 
 such a giant pushing us toward all open and secret 
 righteousness with might and main. On the other 
 hand you have a pigmy asthmatic skeleton, scarce 
 able to stand or breathe alone, laying on us the 
 feathery touch of a single skinny finger, which, ten 
 to one, is not noticed by us at all, save as a chill or 
 a paralysis on all virtuous endeavor. Sure we are 
 that, instead of giving the smallest pressure in the 
 right direction, it rather goes to chill oflp the soul as 
 with the damps of the grave from all excellent ac- 
 tivities. When we see that for the leaders in unbe- 
 lief to discard God is generally to cast off right- 
 eousness, lose conscience, and unlearn the very 
 theory of obligation — when, in the only example 
 the world has ever seen of organized atheism, we 
 see it shaking society like an earthquake, and 
 crushing alike the sanctities of home, the rights of 
 the citizen, and the authority of law — when we 
 consider the instincts of parents, the confessions of 
 atheistic apostles, and the very nature of the case, 
 it is impossible to give any but the most gloomy 
 account of the practical influence of any system of 
 
214 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 living which does not positively recognize a Divine 
 government. Strike out the present almost uni- 
 versal idea of such a government, and we are bound 
 to believe that the present level of morals in the 
 world would sink with startling swiftness and pro- 
 digious ebb so as to show the very central sands. 
 If some misanthrope would turn the world into 
 such a state that, in comparison with it, the present 
 state should be an Eden-garden, let him find some 
 way to extinguish from the world all belief or sus- 
 picion of a Divine existence. This would bring 
 upon us the briers and thorns of the wilderness as 
 nothing else would. If any father wishes to bring 
 up his family to be impetuous and bold for every 
 folly and for ex^ery crime, ready to trample on all 
 civil and social and filial duties ; sad tempests and 
 plagues always and everywhere — then let him 
 bring them up to think that there is no God above 
 to watch and deal with t^iem accordino; to their 
 works. In a word. Theism is the salt of the world. 
 We should be nothing but a putrefying corpse 
 without it. And, on the other hand, should all 
 men come to believe in God as they believe in 
 the oceans and mountains — as vividly and pro- 
 foundly — the world would become a beautiful 
 life, and its present faded and hectic cheek would 
 so nobly round and flush with virtue's health that 
 one would hardly recognize it. 
 
 Thus faith in God is greatly favorable to virtue. 
 Being so, it is greatly favorable to happiness here 
 
INFLUENCE OF FAITH. 215 
 
 and to prospects of it hereafter. Let one consult 
 the general admission of mankind ; let him consult 
 his own experience and observation ; let him con- 
 sult the very definition of virtue, whicli includes 
 the idea of acting in harmony with tlie nature of 
 things ; and he must feel that the happineSiS of a 
 man in this world depends more on his relation to 
 virtue than on all other things put together. Be- 
 yond a doubt, goodness is the great sunshine-maker. 
 There is a world of poetry and of truth — and not 
 more of one than of the other — in that antique 
 phrase, Sun of Righteousness. The kind of pleas- 
 ure virtue gives is incomparably more pure, pene- 
 trating, lasting, and elevated than any other. It is 
 sweet as the ambrosia and nectar of the gods. It 
 can make a little heaven in the absence of all thinos 
 else : all things else leave us but an empty and 
 pricking satisfaction without it. It gives a quiet 
 conscience, governed passions, benevolent affections, 
 concord with natural laws, and generally sublime 
 hopes. While leaving us as fair candidates as others 
 for all forms of worldly good, it doubles our faculty 
 for enjoying them : w^hile leaving us to no more 
 and greater trials than befall others, it provides us 
 with sevenfold consolations under them. Virtue 
 does indeed forbid us certain pleasures. It will not • 
 allow us to drink of everything that goes by that 
 much abused name, or that really gives much pres- 
 ent gratification — perhaps foamy, passionate, incar- 
 nadined Falernian. But the gratifications which 
 
216 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 virtue refuses are well known to leave behind them 
 so many bitter tastes and pains as to make them, on 
 the whole scheme of life, sorrows. Our interest of 
 earthly happiness ought to thank virtue for cutting 
 us off from such apples of Sodom and grapes of 
 Gomorrah. — And is there another life beyond this ? 
 If so, the virtuous man stands by far the best chance 
 in regard to it. Should a Holy Governing God 
 prove real, such a man must be saved and glorified ; 
 should He prove but an empty name, such a man 
 can hardly be worse off than his unvirtuous 
 neighbor. Who believes that, Christendom being 
 searched through, a single intelligent man could be 
 found, who, looking merely at the chances for safety 
 and happiness after death, had not rather live and 
 die as a good man than as a bad one ? Every per- 
 son is absolutely certain that his future state would 
 not be prejudiced by a virtuous character and ca- 
 reer ; and he is not certain but that it would be 
 ruined by the want of these. 
 
 Then, as to the bearing of virtue on the useful- 
 ness of a man. When we say that a certain man 
 is virtuous, we in effect say that he habitually dis- 
 charges what seem to him his duties in all direc- 
 tions. He stands nobly pledged to his family, to 
 his neighbors, to his countrymen, to his race, and 
 even to brute and inanimate nature. We ma}'- be 
 sure of his being, in the main and according to his 
 light, a good son, brother, father, employer, servant, 
 citizen, ruler, subject. Even the beasts and herbs of 
 
PRACTICAL INFLUENCE OF FAFFH. 217 
 
 the field shall be the Abetter and thriftier for him 
 The very nature, as well as the history of virtue 
 assures all this. On the other hand, the unrio;ht- 
 eousness which atheism fosters assures nothincr of 
 the sort. It leaves the way open for every sort 
 and degree of trespass on the interests of others. 
 A man may plague his friends, and curse his neio-h- 
 borliood, and betray his country — may belch out 
 corruptions and injuries of every name on all around 
 him as stormily and profusely as ever did volcano 
 its destructive ashes and lava — and still be a capi- 
 tal atheist. If he chooses to commit the grossest 
 possible outrage on society, and then assert that he 
 does not believe in God, we cannot say that his as- 
 sertion and his deed are mutually inconsistent. Go 
 to that man in prison on charge of having murdered 
 his own lovino;, self-sacrificincr, and beseechino- 
 mother. Say to him, " Man, what think you about 
 this matter of a God? " " Think! " he shall say, 
 " why I don't believe in Him — there is no such 
 Being." Would such an answer go to strengthen 
 any lurking idea of liis innocence which you may 
 entertain ? AVouhl you feel like grasping his hand, 
 and exclaiming, " My dear sir, it must be that you 
 have been unjustly accused ! You a matricide ! 
 You an atheist, and yet do such a crime ! You 
 honestlv convinced that there is no God to brinor 
 the wicked to account, and yet lift murdering hand 
 on your own mother ! Incredible ! The friends 
 of justice must at once look to your liberation." 
 
218 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 How preposterous such language would souud to 
 even tlie prisoner himself! He would think you 
 dealing in severest irony. He knows, and is sure 
 that everybody knows, that the loss of that fliith 
 which he had when a boy has done nothincr for him 
 morally, and could do nothino; whatever, save to 
 mightily lift the checks from his depravity. He 
 knows, and is sure that everybody knows, that god- 
 lessness is just the thing from which to expect all 
 sorts of harmful outgoings on the world around — 
 from men down to the dog that crouches at his feet, 
 and to the sapling that stands fearing the wasteful 
 axe. 
 
 For the full scientific significance of these facts 
 we must wait a little. After o^atherino- some further 
 particulars of the same general character, we will 
 proceed to question science in regard to the value 
 of the whole. But I will ask you to just notice in 
 passing that, in case there is a righteous Divine 
 Ruler, this immense utility to great classes of be- 
 ings of faith in Him is just what we ought to find. 
 He would be likely to make a system to which He 
 should be the necessary complement ; a system 
 which should perpetually call for Him ; a system 
 which should find its highest repose, satisfaction, and 
 uses of all sorts in a cordial recoo-nition of Him. 
 But, without a God, the fact would not be ])ositively 
 likely to be as we find it: on the contrary, it would 
 be positively improbable. Is it not matter of uni- 
 ^'^ersal admission that it is in general best for even 
 
PRACTICAL INFLUENCE OF FAITH. 21£ 
 
 the Individual to avoid error, that generally it is 
 best for him to see things as they are ? Much more 
 sure is the doctrine — much more does it square 
 with the convictions, experience, and proceedings 
 of mankind, that for a whole class it is substantially 
 never better to believe, especially permanently, in 
 a falsehood than in the conflicting truth. Indeed, 
 I am confident that not a single instance of the 
 kind can be discovered by any amount of research. 
 And if the class in question be the whole race of 
 men, then indeed it can be concisely proved that 
 such an instance is impossible — there cannot be an 
 instance of universal faith in a falsehood proving 
 vastly more serviceable to the public than faith In 
 the opposed truth. If it is extremely desirable, all 
 things considered, that men at large should hold to 
 a given error, then true benevolence requires you 
 to promote that false belief in yourself and others 
 to the extent of your ability — no matter though at 
 the outset you know it to be unwarranted by facts. 
 This being so, unless there is generic antagonism 
 between the dictates of general benevolence and 
 those of duty, between a useful course of conduct 
 and a righteous one — which is allowed by no cred- 
 ible and tolerable theory of morals — it is your duty 
 to abuse your reason, to make and love a lie, to 
 employ prejudices and sophisms and all sorts of in- 
 tellectual trickery to Impose on yourself and others. 
 Samson must put out his own eyes and those of all 
 Israel besides. Who believes this ? Are we pre- 
 
220 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 pared to give up the most instinctive, universally 
 received, and fundamental principles of morals ? 
 If in any one case it is not merely right, but a posi- 
 tive duty, to practice such moral jugglery, then 
 there is no radical and inherent distinction between 
 right and wrong, and one may carry his principles 
 along with his crops to market without compunc- 
 tion, or run them up for his amusement to the side 
 of some highest vane, to bear it company as it turns 
 easily by a breath to every point of the compass. 
 The doQtrine is simply abominable. Get thee hence, 
 Satan ! Any campanile would be dishonored by 
 such a weather-cock. One cannot persuade the 
 human mind to accept falsehood as true on good 
 grounds. Just arguments never prove an error. 
 Natural, judicious, and honest processes of thought 
 have no tendency to carry us to wrong conclusions. 
 If one manages to escape the grasp of known truth, 
 it must be by pettifoggings, cheats, treacheries, false 
 swearings against his own reason and conscience — • 
 it must be by shameful twistings, turnings, doub- 
 lings, and even metamorphoses of his better nature. 
 Behold the strugo-ling Proteus ! At last the god 
 becomes a swine. Is it his duty to do this ? Is he 
 at liberty to do it ? How dare he so debase his 
 divinity ? How can he help despising his ugly self 
 wallowing in that sty? Avaunt Proteus, Machia- 
 velli, Mephistophiles — we will have none of you ! 
 Away with such repulsive and destructive princi- 
 ples — on the ]")oint of the longest and most non- 
 
PRACTICAL INFLUENCE OF FAITH. 221 
 
 conducting of spears! It is as if one had grasped 
 the battery of a torpedo ! 
 
 But — theory apart — a bad practical influence 
 is a noted characteristic of falsehood. I do not say 
 there may not be seeming exceptions. But I do 
 say, that, in general, it is unfavorable to our inter- 
 ests to believe a falsehood, or to fail to believe the 
 truth. Otherwise, to say the least, we might as 
 well have one opinion as another ; mistake would 
 be as likely to be serviceable as just views ; and all 
 pains to investigate would be foolish — a thing that 
 nobody believes, and the contrary of which every- 
 body assumes in the affairs of actual life. Witness, 
 ye sciences — sweating away at your observation 
 and experiment and induction! Witness, ye arts 
 
 d trades — strainino- awav at the toil of in- 
 
 an 
 
 ,'ay 
 
 ventors and adapters of inventions! Witness, ye 
 sagacious businessmen of every name — knitting 
 your questioning, forecasting, anxious brows over 
 ledgers, markets, products ! What mean ye all — 
 unless it be that knowledo-e is better than iono- 
 ranee; that facts are the mine out of which men are 
 to dig their prosperity ; that he who best knows 
 things as they are, and best adjusts his conduct to 
 them, has advantage over every competitor ? This 
 is what all this circumspect and thoughtful activity 
 of the world means. And means wisely. For this 
 is only saying that the engineer who lays out his 
 road across the continent after copious and careful 
 surveys, and with eyes w' ide open on the correlations 
 
222 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 of hill and valley and marsh and river, will surety 
 do better by his company than if he had gone blind- 
 folded to his work ; that the sailor who, with alert 
 hand on the wheel, watches closely compass and 
 chart and sea and sky, will be more likely to make 
 a prosperous voyage than if he had chosen to 
 sleep or to be drunken ; that a blind traveller who 
 paces at random about Switzerland is more likely to 
 come to harm than if, with eye like a sunbeam, he 
 were carefully noting every step he took among the 
 torrents and glaciers and chasms and terrible preci- 
 pices. Civilization is better than barbarism. The 
 Nineteenth Century is better than the Age of 
 Bronze. The United States are better than Da- 
 homey. And that truth, secular and religious, out 
 of the acquisition and use of whicli all this mighty 
 dIflPerence has slowly grown, is very profitable truth. 
 So generic utility as a trait of truth, and generic 
 hurtfulness as a trait of eritir, stand demonstrated 
 on an immense scale in the history of the world. 
 The conduct of the world admits it, the experience 
 of the world proves it, the very foundations of mo- 
 rality demand it. And when we find the Doctrine 
 of God with this bright distinction shinincr on its 
 breast, like the jeweled star that betokens an em- 
 peror ; when we find it so radically and vastly use- 
 ful to the virtue, happiness, and usefulness of the 
 broad class of men, and so to the welfare of all the 
 dependent animal races with their still broader do- 
 main — our heads instinctively sink upon our breasts, 
 
DIRECT DIVINE ACTION. '2*^3 
 
 and we do homage as in tlie august presence of that 
 unchalIeno;ed sovereign whose name Is Truth. 
 
 I pass to another point. The polarities of good 
 men point toward a great need of God. The prac- 
 tical influence of Theism places that need actually 
 under our eye somewhat in detail. A consideration 
 of the effects of a direct Divine action on the uni- 
 verse will manifest the need still more fully and 
 impressively. This will show great Home from the 
 summit of the Capitoline. The distant guide-boards 
 of the Appian have reliably pointed us toward the 
 city. Coming to the gate, we have caught ])artial 
 views of the interior. And now, at last arrived at 
 the city-heart and perched far above Rock Tar- 
 peian, we proceed for a moment to take the supreme 
 view. All the monuments are before us. On the 
 one hand is the old city, witli its arches and tem- 
 ples and Coliseum of the mighty past ; on the other 
 is the new city, with its palaces and basilicas and 
 Vatican of the mightier present. The most impres- 
 sive sio'ht of all! 
 
 Conceive of a direct Divine action on the uni- 
 verse. Hardly anything can be surer than that 
 such action cannot be the sliohtest harm to the 2:en- 
 eral interest of the system, but must, on the con- 
 trary, promote that interest infinitely by force of 
 infinite faculties acting through infinite years. 
 With One standing at the wheel who can at a 
 glance see through the whole system as related to 
 both space and duratign ; who out of a loving heart 
 
224 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 wants to make out of that vast empire the best He 
 can, and who can on occasion instantaneously and 
 forever send out to its remotest extremities the help 
 of resources virtually immeasurable ; and who is 
 actually counteracting, guiding, propelling every- 
 where in all that stupendous sovereignty — enlight- 
 enino- io-norance, comfortino; sorrow, restrainino; sin, 
 stimulating holiness, forcing brute energies and ele- 
 ments along their appropriate channels by an over- 
 mastering omnipotence — with such a Being the 
 system of Nature as a whole is sure to reach, not 
 only the highest destiny in the nature of things pos- 
 sible, but also one infinitely in advance of what 
 would have been realized without Him. Individ- 
 ual interests found in irreconcilable conflict with the 
 genera] interest will have to suffer ; but the general 
 interest itself, in all its huge proportions, will stead- 
 ily have the benefit of a still huger wisdom and 
 power working endlessly in* its behalf. And this 
 will be an immeasurable benefit. 
 
 According to the doctrine of chances it is morally 
 certain that without a God the issue of the universe 
 will not be the best possible. Further, without a 
 God there are as many chances of the issue being 
 bad as of its being good. Still further, it is possible 
 that the issue will be calamitous beyond expression. 
 On the ground of no presiding Deity Ave cannot 
 venture to predict the last or balanced result of any- 
 thinof. What is there whose history we can follow 
 through all the intricate workino-s and interwork- 
 
DIRECT DIVINE ACTION. 225 
 
 inos and counterworldno-s of an infinite number of 
 independent agencies upon it, and so gather up its 
 iieneral simiificance, whether fortunate or unfortu- 
 nate, best possible or worst possible ? The web that 
 is being woven is so large, and such myriads of 
 shuttles shoot before our eyes in as many different 
 directions, that we cannot make out the pattern. 
 Here we see a bright thread, and there a dark one : 
 but what ficrure will come out in the end no mere 
 looking into endless mazes will tell us. But give 
 us the fact that there is an infinitely accomplislied 
 Being at the head of the universe, and we can see 
 in a moment what sort of a pattern, with its parti- 
 colored threads and swarming shuttles, the great 
 loom of existence is weaving. Behold the most per- 
 fect picture the case admits of! Behold a tapestry 
 Gobelin whose precious tln^eads spell out the sweet- 
 ness of celestial landscapes — tit hangings for the pal- 
 ace of the Eternal ! The system of things will turn 
 out happily, and as happily as, in the nature of things, 
 it possibly can. It cannot be a curse or a failure, as 
 without a God it may be. It must be a positive bless- 
 ing, as without a God there is no positive probability 
 of its being. It must be the greatest blessing possi- 
 ble, as without a God it is certain not to be. Nay, 
 this greatest possible blessing must be an infinite 
 one, as without a God it is certain to be at an infinite 
 remove from being. The perfect goodness of God 
 would never have allowed Him to bring into being 
 a system out of which He could not extract more 
 
 15 
 
226 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 good than hurt : once in being, that system cannot 
 but be gloriously advantaged by the eternal action 
 upon it for good of that glorious magazine of forces 
 and resources of which His name is the mao-nificent 
 cordon. Such forces cannot fail of effects commen- 
 surate with themselves. All forces actually exerted 
 on an object are effectual, and effectual in proportion 
 to their degree. If they fail to produce a positive 
 movement in the direction in which they act, they 
 at least destroy so much force in the opposite direc- 
 tion. Hence the resultant of a God on the well-be- 
 ing of the universe must be unspeakably precious. 
 The difference between what it is with Him and 
 what it would be without Him, is solid infinity. 
 The two are as far apart as are the poles of Nature. 
 eFust think of an infinite Being working wdth unde- 
 caying diligence through everlasting years for the 
 best good of His universal creatures — frivinor to the 
 great enterprise all the wealt^i of His loving heart, 
 all the resources of His unbounded intelligence, 
 all the energies of His almighty arm ! Is it in the 
 power of such minds as ours to compute the value of 
 such an agency as this? Astonished Arithmetic re- 
 fuses to undertake the problem. She refuses even 
 to seriously look at it. What have her puny multi- 
 plication tables to do with such an optimism as this? 
 To be without a God is for the universe to suffer an 
 infinite loss. It needs Him as it needs to escape an 
 infinite evil. Measureless Need ! Where is the 
 ^athom-line that can sound it — where the ship or 
 
IJIRECT DIVINE ACTION. 227 
 
 tlie electricity that can log across its broad expanses 
 — where the aeronant or the telescope even that can 
 shoot upward to the foamy crest of its ground swell ? 
 When you see a little orphan child — weak, 
 sicklv, willful, destitute, tempted — you are touched 
 with compassion How much he needs a father ! 
 How much he needs a father to protect him, to coun- 
 sel him, to govern him, to educate him, to provide 
 for his future in almost every respect ! • Such is the 
 spontaneous feeling of every kind and thoughtful 
 man as he sees the poor boy wandering about in his 
 rags, able to do little or nothing for himself, full of 
 fears and ignorance, beset on all sides with great 
 dangers and miseries, prone by nature to almost 
 every kind of evil, and already showing the begin- 
 nino-s of many bad habits and disorders in body and 
 
 Of •/ 
 
 mind. How much he needs a father ! 
 
 So I feel when I look about on the fatherless 
 world which atheism presents to us. Ah, such a 
 world — let no one tell me that it does not need a 
 God ! It is weak and sickly ; and needs a strong 
 Divine arm to lean upon, a strong Divine tender- 
 ness to nurse and shield it. It is a world in rags, 
 cold, hungry, thirsty, wandering about without 
 shelter under inclement skies ; it needs a Heavenly 
 Father to care for it, and give it home and fireside 
 and raiment and daily bread. It is a sorrowful 
 world — it needs a Heavenly and Omnipresent Con- 
 soler ; a world full of temptations and dangers — it 
 needs a Heavenly and Omnipresent Protector ; a 
 
228 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 world full of wrono; tendencies and actual disorders, 
 willful and wayward and corrupt to a miracle — it 
 needs a Wise, Omnipotent, and yet Pitiful Heav- 
 enly Governor; a world full of ignorance and 
 error — it needs a Heavenly and Omnipotent Coun- 
 selor and Enlicfhtener. 
 
 From what now is in this world, imagine what 
 would be in all worlds were Nature thoroughly 
 drained of a Divine existence and government. 
 It would be a most terrible state of things. My 
 account of it has not been too strono;. From the 
 nature of the case it beggars description. An Infi- 
 nite Force that lays itself out most unsparingly and 
 wisely and eternally for the best good of Nature, 
 could not be subtracted from it Avithout infinite 
 damao;e. It could not be added to it without infi- 
 nite gain. 
 
 We are now to ask carefully for the scientific 
 import of this Need of God.* 
 
 It is a canon of modern science that whatever 
 is needed to complement a race of beings in any 
 constitutional respect, always exists somewhere, or 
 is attainable. Take, for example, the race of men. 
 Whatever is needed to match and make fully avail- 
 able any of our natural mechanisms, faculties, apti- 
 tudes, traits, so that there may be no waste — so 
 that we may have the full benefit of such powers 
 as normally belong to us — whatever is needed to 
 do this always exists, or, at least, can be made to 
 exist. Thus men need air. They need it to turn 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT 229 
 
 to some account the breathing mechanism of their 
 bodies. Accordingly air exists. — Men need light. 
 They need it to make some use of their eyes. 
 Tiiese organs were as good as thrown away with- 
 out it. Accordingly light exists. — Men need odors 
 and sounds. They need them to turn to some 
 account the organs for smelHno; and hearins;. Ac- 
 cordingly odors and means of sound exist. — Men 
 need food and heat. They need these things to 
 sustain the action of every bodily organ. We 
 mio'ht as well not have the organs as to have them 
 frozen and strengthless. They would be sacri- 
 ficed. Accordingly heat and food exist. — Men 
 need knowledge, friendship, government, virtue. 
 They need these things in order that the constitu- 
 tional faculties and demands for them which human 
 nature possesses may not be quite useless and worse 
 than useless. We should be wretched with noth- 
 ing or next to nothing to answer to these hungry 
 and thirsty parts of our nature. Accordingly they 
 do not huno-er and thirst in vain. There is knowl- 
 edge to be acquired ; love to be given and taken ; 
 government to restrain, direct, and compose the 
 social state ; virtue wherewith to exalt and felicitate 
 ourselves. — In short. Nature builds no reservoir 
 which she does not, sooner or later, use ; forges no 
 tool which she has never occasion for. She is self- 
 cono-ruous and self-fulfillino;. 
 
 Not only do such things exist as are needed to 
 prevent an entire waste of any constitutional fac- 
 
230 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 ulty or trait of mankind, but also all such thinga 
 as are needed to prevent even a partial waste of it. 
 Nature is thrifty. She is a great utilizer. She 
 abhors waste in all its degrees. She gathers up 
 tlie fragments that nothing be lost. And so pro- 
 vision is made for the full use of everything that 
 really belongs to our nature. The best condition 
 of each part is made possible. A pendulum may 
 describe a very small arc, or a large one, or a whole 
 semicircle. An eye may see little, or much, or as 
 much as belongs to an eye of the soundest state 
 and wisest culture. It is this last measure of activ- 
 ity and use that Nature provides for. She sees to 
 it that every part of human nature is provided with 
 the means of describino; its full semicircle. For 
 example. Men need not only air, light, sound, 
 odors, food, heat, knowledge, friendship, govern- 
 ment, virtue — without which certainly constitu- 
 tional traits would be totally unavailable — but 
 they also need certain measures and varieties of 
 these things in order that those parts of our nature 
 to which they have respect may be available in the 
 fullest decree Avhich their natures allow. Unless the 
 air has a certain density, the lungs begin to labor. 
 If the light has not a certain tone and intensity, 
 the eye is more or less crippled in its performance. 
 Unless the sounds and odors are tempered and va- 
 ried to a certain extent, the ear and nostril cannot 
 do full service. Unless we have a variety of food 
 and certain limits of temperature, our bodies weaken 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 231 
 
 tlu'ouoliout, and every faculty walks with trembling 
 knees. If we do not have large measures and 
 many sorts of knowledge and friendship and vir- 
 tue, the most possible is not made of our faculties 
 for these things — we are not suitably fed and 
 equipped for the best experience and service which 
 our powers allow — the oil does not fill the capa- 
 cious bowl, the wick is too small for its large tube, 
 and accordingly the flame flickers on the high silver 
 socket where it ouglit to burn steadily, and the 
 photosphere is pale which ought to be flooded w^ith 
 lio'ht. Such is the need. Nature has provided 
 accordingly. That density of air, that measure 
 of light, that variety of food, that range of knowl- 
 edge and friendship and virtue, which best suits 
 our powers, is either actual or attainable. We 
 find that if much change is made in either of these 
 respects we at once begin to suffer. Our vitality 
 abates. The system becomes depressed. Strength 
 ebbs away at every pore, and every organ gives 
 sign of embarrassed action. We discover that our 
 circumstances stand well adjusted to our natures. 
 What the race needs to best utilize its various fac- 
 ulties the race has. The stature of the supply 
 matches the stature of the demand. Nature builds 
 no reservoir twdce as large as she can use ; nor forges 
 a tool twice as sharp and massive as she has occa- 
 sion for. She is self-congruous and self-fulfilling. 
 These are a few^ examples of tlie law that what- 
 ever is needed to turn to account, and even the 
 
232 SEVENTH LECTURE 
 
 fullest account, the traits normal to any class of be- 
 ings, exists somewhere or is attainable. Of course 
 it is not claimed that this law has been verified by 
 an actual examination of every single case of such 
 need in even a single department of great Nature. 
 But it is claimed that so extensive an examination 
 of particular cases has been made as to put the law 
 on the sure footino- of inductive science. We have 
 had an immense experience. And all our experi- 
 ence has been one Avay. It has been to the effect 
 that Nature, wdthin the field stated, does nothing 
 by halves. She does not stop at fractions of enter- 
 prises. She never forsakes a part till it becomes a 
 whole. Her works are often a process ; not sel- 
 dom the process is long ; but provision is always 
 made for finishing up in a congruous manner what- 
 ever she has undertaken. Many human works are 
 finally forsaken at various stages of incompleteness 
 — schemes, machines, edifices, books. You cannot 
 n infer from the unfinished tower of Cologne, or from 
 / the unfurnished niches on the minster of Milan, that 
 ; it ever will or can be supplemented into complete- 
 ness. Not so with the generic works of Nature. 
 She is no Michael Angelo — leaving piles of unfin- 
 ished productions. She is no Livy — certain chap- 
 ters given, and then a hopeless " Ca3tera desunt." 
 All her parts bid us look for wholes. Each fraction 
 of hers proclaims that its integer is come or com- 
 ing. Have you found such a fraction ? Be sure 
 that all the things needed to round it out into 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 233 
 
 completeness exist somewhere, either in esse or in 
 posse — as sm'e as you are when you see the red 
 of the spectrum that its complementary colors are 
 not far distant — as sure as you are when you see 
 a crescent moon that the rest of the sphere is by 
 its side, though for the present unilluminated. 
 Look more closely, and perhaps you will faintly dis- 
 cover the old moon in the arms of the new. Look 
 more closely, and perhaps you will discover over 
 against yonder organic need in Nature that full 
 supply of the need which Nature has provided. 
 But whether you discover it or not, make sure that 
 the supply exists or is attainable. Nature does not 
 waste herself. She has no fondness for throwing 
 herself away, either wholly or in part. If you find 
 one of her reservoirs, make sure that there is some- 
 thing to put in it, and as much as it will hold ; if 
 you find one of her tools, make sure that it has 
 something to do, and as much as it can do well. So 
 frugal is she with all her bountifulness ! So provi- 
 dent is she, and so well does she husband her re- 
 sources ! So good and careful a provider is she — 
 never liable to be reckoned worse than an infidel 
 because she does not provide for her own ! 
 
 So well established is this principle in our ex- 
 perience that scientific men are accustomed to as- 
 sume it and build on it without ceremony in their 
 investigations, especially in physical science. As 
 soon as they discover a constitutional physical want 
 of any natural species, they at once receive a pow- 
 
234 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 erful suggestion of the existence, or at least of 
 tlie attainability, of an adequate supply. Nay, they 
 are profoundly convinced of such existence or at- 
 tainability, and confidently assume it. If Cuvier 
 finds a bone, he at once reconstructs the whole ani- 
 mal to which it belongs, and tells us how it looked, 
 and what its habits were when living. How ? On 
 the observed fact that whatever is needed to com- 
 plement a given mechanism in Nature and enable 
 it to be turned to full account, at least in a natural 
 class, exists or has existed. He does not speculate 
 as to how this preat fact came to be ; only it is mat- 
 ter of plentiful experience that it is. — Mantell, in 
 digging deeply into the earth, discovers a strange 
 skeleton, and the round bony sockets wdiere once 
 were eyes. " This class of animals," he says, 
 " thouo-h now Ivins five hundred feet below the 
 surface, once had life above ground." " And how, 
 my dear sir, do you know this ? " " Why, do you 
 not see that the animal had eyes, and needed to 
 live in the light ? " The philosopher would not be 
 confident that some individual of the class did not 
 spend all its days in darkness underground ; but he 
 is sure that it was not so with the class at large. 
 They needed life in the light, and he sets it down as 
 certain that they had it ; and not a naturalist in 
 Christendom will dream of disputing him. — As little 
 will Owen be disputed, when, on finding on the 
 surface of a field the bony frame of an animal which 
 plainly never had any eyes to speak of, but which 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 235 
 
 had feet and form and head nicely suited to living 
 and making its way underground, he just reverses 
 the former assumption. '' This class of animals," 
 lie says, " needed life below the surface ; " and on 
 the instant he takes it for granted that the life which 
 they needed they had. — Miller goes fer inland, and 
 there, on the top of a mountain, picks up the 
 bleached debris of a bird plainly once web-footed. 
 This class of birds needed, in part at least, a life 
 in the water ; and his mind at once rests unw^aver- 
 ino-lv in the conclusion that at the time when they 
 lived a w^ater-life was accessible to them. — Or 
 Sedgewick, or Dana, or Agassiz finds a fossil with 
 both herbivorous and carnivorous organs : only to 
 be quite sure that the species to which it belonged, 
 needing both flesh and herb for its best develop- 
 ment, lived in times when both flesh and herb food 
 could be obtained. Or, these eminent philoso- 
 phers find a whole formation filled with fossil plants 
 and animals having special adaptations to an am- 
 phibious life, needing a world of ponds and marshes, 
 not indeed to exist, but to exist after their most 
 flourishing: manner: only to feel sure that those 
 amphibians by structure actually lived in a transi- 
 tion period when the world of waters was just 
 giving way to a world of dry land. As soon as 
 they see the need, they believe in the supply. 
 And from east to west of the scientific world there 
 is no one to lift up a single sign of remonstrance. 
 " The whole earth is quiet, there is none that 
 
236 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 moves wing or opens mouth or peeps." It is uni- 
 versally felt that tliis is sound science — that no 
 sounder is to be had in all the Baconian realm. 
 And so on to a vast extent. Behold scientists 
 perpetually assuming and allowing that somehow 
 supply accompanies the generic needs of Nature 
 as shadow accompanies substance — sometimes be- 
 fore it and sometimes behind it, sometimes near 
 and sometimes considerably removed, sometimes 
 easily seen and sometimes seen with difficulty or 
 not at all ; but always existing, as surely as there 
 is always more or less light on the earth even in the 
 darkest night, and always linked to its counterpart 
 substance by indissoluble though invisible bonds ! 
 
 Now, this conduct in men of science does not 
 proceed from a traditional notion of a wise and 
 good God who will do nothing by halves or tan- 
 talize his creatures, but from a sense of what is 
 the general course of Nature. It is observed that 
 somehow Nature has a way of finding her generic 
 wants supplied — that is the whole of it. It is 
 observed that somehow her parts are extremely 
 apt to orb themselves out into wholes — that is the 
 whole of it. It is observed, and profusely observed, 
 that somehow it is with her as with other kind and 
 wealthy mothers ; she does not send forth her chil- 
 dren into the world without suitable outfit — that is 
 the whole of it. This is the secret of that hio-h scien- 
 tific confidence. It is all pure observation — not at 
 aU traditional theology. Scientific investigations sel- 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 237 
 
 dom proceed on theological grounds, even among 
 relio'ious men. Indeed, it has lono; been estab- 
 lished law that special jealousy be used to prevent 
 anything of the kind. Besides, the conduct re- 
 ferred to is as general among those who never 
 tlnnk of a God in any practical connection with 
 their employments — among atheists and antithe- 
 ists who are carefully and zealously on the watch 
 against any tacit assumption of the general Theistic 
 tradition — as a;mono; others. Even as the screat 
 mass of farmers and merchants and other men of 
 affairs never go behind natural agents and laws in 
 the dealings and conceptions of their business, so 
 with the investigators of Nature as a class — they 
 deal exclusively with phenomena and natural 
 causes. They see on all hands the immense ten- 
 dency to equilibrium. They see how the streams 
 and straws converge on every vacant spot. They 
 see that wherever there is a broad organic need 
 thither set gulf-streams and trade-winds freighted 
 heavily with relief-ships. They see that where 
 shines the Castor of a demand you may with proper 
 search find shinino; over ao;ainst it the twin Pollux 
 of a supply ; and that where night appears there 
 appear also the festival-keeping stars. They see — 
 as they have always seen from the time when they 
 began to observe Nature at all — that she has a 
 happy faculty, say a genius, at getting her loud 
 calls affirmatively answered, her great hungers 
 and thirsts provided for, her hungry vacuums 
 
238 SEVENTH LECTURE, 
 
 charged with fitting contents. They see — in 
 short, it is pure sight from beginning to end. Wit- 
 ness almost all the men called philosophers, from 
 Comte upward. And from Comte upward, the 
 idea of a Framer of Nature who is far too wise 
 to frame useless things, and far too steady to His 
 purpose not to carry thoroughly through whatever 
 framing He has begun — this idea has nothing to 
 do with prompting the general philosophic convic- 
 tion that the great polarities of Nature are every- 
 where as faithful guides to explorers as when boxed 
 up in the mariner's compass ; and that when we 
 find her putting up at some corner of her thorough- 
 fares a guide-board, with its striking index-hand 
 and great capitals saying " London " to all passers 
 by, we may assure ourselves that London exists — 
 more especially when she proceeds to plant her 
 own person by that prophetic cross, and to glare 
 with the eye, and to point with the finger, and to 
 nod like Olympian Jove in the same direction, 
 and to exclaim '' London " in every civilized speech 
 and with a voice that surges against the stars. 
 
 For see further. Physicists, on purely natural 
 grounds, not only give unanimous consent to the 
 principle that in their field Nature has an invet- 
 erate habit of getting her generic needs supplied, 
 but they will, on the same grounds, unanmiously 
 consent to a certain extension of the principle — 
 namely, the larger the need, the greater the mo- 
 mentum and evidence with which Nature finds 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 239 
 
 tlie supply. There are four cases. Sometimes 
 a need is intrinsically larger than another need. 
 Sometimes several needs point at and demand the 
 same object. Sometimes the class to which a need 
 belongs is broader and more important than another 
 class. And the strongest case of all is when you 
 have a combination of these three cases into a fourth 
 — when you have great needs, many of them, and 
 all of these belonging to a class of immense breadth 
 and importance. Then the aggregate need is very 
 great ; and the supply of that need is assured 
 after a most manifold and imperial manner. 
 
 Some needs are intrinsically greater than others. 
 And we observe that it is after the spirit and man- 
 ner of Nature to give the most heed to the loudest 
 call. See with what peculiar care she guards such 
 vital things as brain and heart behind their bony 
 ramparts! Whatever it is that prompts lier to 
 provide for a need rather than for a no-need, would 
 prompt her to provide for a great need with more 
 care than for a small one. — - Sometimes several great 
 needs point at and clamor for the same supply. As 
 we have seen, each of these is evidence of the ex- 
 istence of that supply. And together they are sO' 
 many independent evidences of that existence, and 
 form an aggregate need of the largest dimensions., 
 The manifold call is extremely loud and pressing.. 
 It must receive a correspondingly great attention 
 from Nature. For such is the way of her who pro- 
 vides for a need rather than for a no-need, and for 
 
240 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 a great need rather than for a small one. — Some 
 classes, each having several great needs, are more ex- 
 tensive and important than others. Make sure that 
 the same notorioasly self-consistent Nature that is 
 everywhere more careful of a heart than of a hair, 
 of wholes than of parts, of classes than of individ- 
 uals, is more careful of great classes than of small 
 ones. And if the class that clamors for a certain 
 supply with many loud mouths is enormously 
 broader than another class, then the sure testimony 
 of Nature to the existence of the supply is enormously 
 louder and more impressive. It is the voice of many 
 waters. It is the concurring affidavits of many in- 
 dependent witnesses, each of which swears with a 
 steady and determined voice. Hence, if we find all 
 these cases combined in one — if we find very great 
 needs clamoring for a supply, and many such needs 
 all shouting for the same supply, and these all be- 
 longing to a class of beings (Enormously large — then 
 we have a threefold assurance of the intensest and 
 broadest character that the object for which so many 
 brawny hands are stretched out, and so many brawny 
 voices call, is extant or attainable. 
 
 For example. The class of men need air. This 
 need is of a more crying and imperative kind than 
 that for air of standard density or purity ; and so 
 Nature is more careful to secure the former than 
 the latter. Also, it is not only the lungs of men 
 that imperatively needs air, but also the ear and 
 the nostril and the eye and the skin with its 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 241 
 
 adapted pores — to saj notliing of other organs. 
 Neither of these can be turned to proper account 
 without air. So it is a chorus of loud calls that is 
 made for the same thing : and the whole is greatly 
 more loud and impressive than any single call would 
 be, and so proportionally surer of being heard. 
 Also, each call is an independent argument for the 
 existence of the supply. Further, it is not the class 
 of men only that has these various needs ; but the 
 greatly larger class of living beings — comprising 
 hundreds of thousands of animal and vegetable spe- 
 cies, each on the average more numerous than 
 men. All these would be sacrificed without air. 
 This exceedino; breadth of calling; Nature gives ex- 
 ceedino; volume to her voice. It rolls on the ear 
 like tropical thunders. What place so remote as 
 not to hear? What place so deaf? And every 
 distinct organic species that helps to make that 
 great invocation is a distinct proof that the invo- 
 cation is not in vain. Altogether, the proof is im- 
 mensely cumulative. It convinces like noonday 
 mathematics. It displays more cooperative banners 
 than Homer saw marching invincibly on Troy ; or 
 than Tasso saw waving and glinting above Godfrey 
 and his embattled Europe, on their way to Jerusa- 
 lem Delivered. So that when we find in the fossil 
 realms of geology an immense amount and variety 
 of plants and animals, all of which imperatively 
 needed air, and all of which imperatively needed it 
 for many purposes, philosophers feel that they move 
 
 16 
 
242 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 a million strong on the conclusion that when those 
 races existed air existed for them. They would 
 laugh to scorn the man who should pretend to 
 doubt whether an atmosphere flooded the world 
 in the Silurian or any subsequent age. They 
 feel that nothing can be surer. And this, although 
 it is simply an inference from the vast need of air — 
 from the vast and varied waste that would be im- 
 plied in case no air existed. 
 
 So in other similar cases. Wherever in physics 
 we find many great needs calling for help in behalf 
 of a prodigious sweep of being, we have an anvil 
 chorus that does not fail of being heard. It com- 
 mands like an emperor. It invokes like a mighty 
 magician. It dredges the whole abyss of the un- 
 known for an answer, as with Briarean hands ; as 
 a river is dredged for some lost favorite by a whole 
 out-turning population ; as all the declinations and 
 ascensions of heaven have* been dredged by our 
 later Astronomy for hidden planets and nebula3. O 
 Polypheme, thou hast indeed a great and most suc- 
 cessful voice ! How the shores and the distant hills 
 and the far, far away welkin ring as thy massive 
 lips part skyward, and thy huge swollen chest 
 empties itself in gales and torrents and cataracts 
 of sound ! And see how quickly the invoked help 
 swarms to his aid! Swart forms as huge as his 
 own, great voices as burly and earth-quaking as the 
 voice that calls, make prompt answer, and say, Here 
 we are ! The Cyclopean voice has found out the 
 Cyclops. 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 243 
 
 '' Clanlorem immensum toUit, quo pontus et omnes 
 Tntremuere undae, penitusque exterrita tellus 
 Italiae, curvisque immugiit JEtna cavernis. 
 At genus e sylvis Cyclopum et montibus altis 
 Excitmn niit ad portiis et littora complent." 
 
 Such is an uncontested law of Nature. Each real 
 need of a natural class of beings has over against it 
 in Nature the suitable supply, or the means of 
 it ; and the greater the need, the greater the mo- 
 mentum and evidence with which the supply is 
 furnished. We have seen that modern science is 
 built on this law to a very large extent. We have 
 seen that even atheistic explorers of Nature would 
 be glad to build any amount of science on the same 
 foundation. And shall any complain as we now 
 proceed to build upon it what is of more concern to 
 the world than all the profane science that ever was 
 taught and cried up to the third heaven of fame — 
 even though it unravels the tangled mystery of the 
 stars, and provides all the dynamics of useful in- 
 dustry, and probes the solid earth to where sleep in 
 their stony mausolea the secrets of her genesis and 
 hoariest history — I mean that sacred science, the 
 Doctrine of God ! 
 
 For God is needed. I do not claim that He is 
 needed to keep the frame-work of Nature — its 
 mountains, plains, and seas ; its plants, brutes, and 
 men — from promptly falling into utter nothingness ; 
 nor do I care to say that every particle of order and 
 comfort would at once drop out of the system were 
 an active Divine hand withdrawn from beneath it 
 
244 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 Still God is a necessity to the universe. Human 
 nature in Its soundest static liuno-ers for Him. The 
 race at large needs to believe In Him. The total 
 system needs to have Him — as a Providence and 
 Government. Woe to the morals of mankind when 
 faith Is wholly dead ! Woe to the happiness and 
 usefulness and all true greenness of mankind when 
 its morals have o-one down Into the Potter's Field 
 where faith lies scantily burled ! Woe to all earthly 
 Nature, animal and vegetable as well, when the 
 human life and character have both become offen- 
 sive corpses ! Nay, woe to the universal Cosmos 
 when it has no God to o-ulde and orovern It ! An 
 infinite evil has come upon it. It has sustained un- 
 speakable loss. For suppose God to be dead. He 
 has lived and wrought and governed as only a be- 
 ing of perfect faculty can, through amazing asons. 
 But now He dead — dead. What means such an 
 event to the universe ? Manifestly it means some- 
 thing very dreadful. The difference to the system 
 between the presence and the absence of such a 
 dynamic as God is plain infinity. And so I declare 
 that an unspeakable loss has been sustained. A 
 good that defies figures, and even the fancy, has 
 been subtracted from the creation. It is not too 
 much to say that the creation became bankrupt at 
 that loss — became, at that stroke of doom, both 
 altar and sacrifice ; a holocaust sacrifice, whose 
 xurld flames make all space ghastly, and go on to 
 fill It with the charred and ruinous heaps of its 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT.' 245 
 
 former fair self. Oh, how tliese dismal ruins hunger 
 and thirst for the old God ! Oh, how much these 
 black and cindered earths yearn and beseech after 
 Him through their innumerable fissures and gap- 
 ing wounds, as the parched and chapped ground in 
 fiercest drought yearns and cries toward the heavens 
 for rain ! At last true midnight has come. And 
 from out its anguished bosom, indestructible though 
 ruined Nature sends forth groans on groans accented 
 with profound despair — broken with piteous protests 
 and pleadings for a God that cannot be spared. 
 There is not a scorched and scarred, fragment 
 that does not, forgetting all other wants, join in 
 the mournful chime. Oh for a God, Oh for a God ! 
 The state of things is such as to invoke the dead 
 God from His nonentity with almost the force of a 
 Creator. And should He, in answer to these ap- 
 peals " creating a soul under the ribs of death," 
 ao-ain suddenly make His appearance — appear no 
 more to die — Oh, what thrills would circulate, 
 what hallelujahs would go up, what jubilees of 
 shouts and songs would peal and re-peal, what an 
 ecstatic wave of sacred laughter would run and flash 
 in the new sunlight across the whole breadth of 
 being: ! Nature would rincr all her bells. She 
 would blow all her silver trumpets. Even demons, 
 methinks, would rejoice as they emerged from that 
 chaotic night into morning. Even they would be 
 ^iad at that greatest of Eurekas — the re finding 
 of One who knows how to govern. Never before 
 
246 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 has such exulting Sabbatli beeu kept — not even 
 when the mornmg stars sang together, and all the 
 sons of God shouted for joy. And it is but just. 
 So utterly measureless is the need of God. No or- 
 dinary words of literal statement can begin to can^ 
 a just sense of its greatness. 
 
 I saw a little child — wandering, wandering. A 
 strange place, new objects, fresh curious eyes peer- 
 ing at everything— little one, where are you going? 
 Suddenly she misses her father. Where is he ? 
 She looks round and round. Where is the familiar 
 hand that ft short time ago held hers; where the 
 familiar face that but just now was looking down 
 upon her so tenderly and protectingly ? A great 
 fear begins to steal upon her. She lifts up her voice. 
 " Father, Father.'^' No answer comes. " Father, 
 Father.) Father." Still no answer. Her alarm 
 increases fast. She bemns to run about and to ask 
 of one and another, with ftushed face and anxious, 
 questioning eyes, '' Have you seen him — Have you 
 seen my father ? " No — no one has seen him ; and 
 the poor child's heart fails her more and more. Her 
 knees begin to tremble, she is all agitation, her 
 questionings and calls become every moment more 
 hurried and tremulous ; at last a spasm of mingled 
 wails and calls pours out of her white lips, and she 
 breaks down into convulsive sobs which no sooth- 
 ings can allay. Poor child — she has lost her 
 father! Will she never see him again? God for- 
 bid — if there be a God. 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 247 
 
 This partly expresses what every good man 
 wouhi feel hke doing on discovering himself to be 
 without a God — what all men, after a short expe 
 rience of doino; without Him, would feel like doiniJ 
 
 — indeed, what comprehensive Nature, could it 
 become personal, would certainly do. She would, 
 with a great fear at her heart, begin to call for the 
 lost Heavenly Father. She would go searching for 
 Him and asking for Him up and down all the lati- 
 tudes and longitudes. And should she not succeed 
 in finding Him ; should no answer come to her loud 
 and urgent invoking ; should she nowhere meet 
 with any who could tell of having seen Him or His 
 like ; should at last the deepening gloom and silence 
 whisper He is. dead — oh, what a heart-breaking 
 wail would go up that moment to pierce the A-ery 
 heavens ! Drenched in sobs and tears, that poor 
 orphaned child, though bearing the great name of 
 Nature, would wish herself dead also. But hark — 
 what sound is that ? It comes nearer and nearer. 
 She has cauoht it. She lifts her streamino; face and 
 breathlessly attends. On comes the strange sound 
 
 — deepening and widening and at List taking on a 
 perceptible accent of joy. She springs to her feet. 
 With parted lips and face pictorial with hope she 
 leans toward the advancing murmur. " He is 
 found," " He is found " — at last sha})es itself dis- 
 tinctly to her greedy ear. Lo, the day breaks like 
 noon over her beaming face. She springs forward, 
 she runs, she leaps, she meets Him afar, she clings 
 
248 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 about His knees, she casts herself into His open 
 arms and nestles in His bosom. Her sobs die away. 
 She looks up into His face and smiles and clings, 
 and clings and smiles. At last she is at rest. God 
 bless her — at *last tlie poor child whom some call 
 Nature, is at rest. And the tears of by-standers — 
 the spaces and durations — fall in jojful rain. It is 
 all right — just as it should be. It would have been 
 such a dreadful orphanage ! Such rags, such hun- 
 gers, such rooflessness and homelessness, such- neg- 
 lects and exposures and blows, such ignorance and- 
 guilt and misery — never were seen the like. Poor 
 Nature would have died. 
 
 Wliat is the scientific import of all this ? This 
 need of a God, so pronounced and mighty — what 
 means it in view of such science as f )rms the glory 
 and boast of this nineteenth century ? Why, it 
 means the same -as every othfer case of natural ge- 
 neric need — it means a > supply of the need; it 
 means an actual God. Nay, it means Him with an 
 emphasis more prompt and sonorous than ever came 
 from any other need whatever. For it is the su- 
 preme need. It is the Labarum among standards, 
 and the Pontifex Maxim us among priests. Indeed, 
 it is much more than this. It is not only a supreme 
 need but an incomparable one ; not only an incom- 
 parable one but one which could not be greater. 
 How could a need cr}^ more out of the very depths 
 and essential nature of finite thinirs ? How could 
 Jt relate to more vital things than virtue, and those 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 249 
 
 forms of happiness and usefulness that naturally 
 follow in the wake of virtue ? How could it bear 
 on a greater variety of interests than Infinite Fac- 
 ulty can reach and aid, or bear on them more heav- 
 ily ? How could it spread itself over a wider area 
 of being than the enormous All? So that it is not 
 enough to sav that Nature aches after God more 
 than ever eye ached for light, or lungs for air, or 
 wings for an atmosphere, or fins for waters, or 
 the babe for its mother. It is even not enough to 
 •say that this Divine need toAvers out of sight above 
 all others ; that it is indefinitely beyond rivalry ; 
 that, toto 07'he., there is nothing else for which Na- 
 ture clamors so deeply, from so many moutlis, with 
 such variety and breadth of voices, and in behalf 
 of so many classes of being. It is not enough to 
 say even this. We must go on to say with ple- 
 nary voice that it is not within the range of possibil- 
 ities for a need to be greater at any one of these 
 essential points. It is a maximum of maxima. It is 
 the eternity among the durations, the astronomical 
 ab3''ss among the spaces, the God among living be- 
 ino-s. The dav that should see the universe va- 
 cated of a God would befjin to see it beajo-ared to the 
 last farthincr. And when we have said all this, and 
 trulv said it ; when all such secular needs as we have 
 been instancing appear dwarfed into nothingness by 
 its side ; I demand in the name of Science — Shall all 
 these little needs, without exception, be allowed tc 
 argue a supply for themselves, and the same privi- 
 
250 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 lecre be denied to this oireatest ? Shall all these be 
 allowed to argue in proportion to their size, and 
 it be denied to this need to aro;ue at all ? Science 
 protests against such strange proceedings. She will 
 not permit such huge inconsistency — especially as 
 done in her name. After we have taken indefinite 
 .consecutive cases of oio-anic and generic need, and 
 found them always balanced by supply with a 
 brilliancy and emphasis proportioned to their size, 
 shall we come to the next case — which happens to 
 be that of the Divine need — without expecting a 
 continuation of the law ? Who will be so unscientific, 
 unreasonable, and absurd? Who will not feel able 
 to rest all his weight on that lono; chain of inductions? 
 What scholar in the Baconian philosophy and the 
 philosophy of common sense will hesitate to declare 
 that this need, which transcends all others so im- 
 mensely in magnitude, transcends them correspond- 
 ingly in the force with which it argues for that 
 grand supply whose name is God ? 
 
 So the nuns predicts a God. The Being who is 
 needed to complement Nature into a whole really 
 exists. The great hunger for Him which belongs to 
 normal human nature is provided for; the great 
 vacuum that beseeches Him like a maelstrom can 
 te filled ; the great finger-post that points at Him 
 so steadily from all corners is not perjured ; the 
 great drafts and streams that set in from all quar- 
 ters toward Him really have Him for their Equa- 
 tor ; the great wheel whose radii are seen con- 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 251 
 
 verging on Him till tliey are lost in clouds really 
 has Him for its sublime Axis. 
 
 See how these flowers, and mdeed all this abun- 
 dant vegetation, have their generic slant sunward ! 
 Do I need to have seen that attracting sun during 
 all these months and years in order to know that it 
 has existed and shone ? Nature is a heliotrope — 
 an enormous sunflower, turning its whole fruitful 
 bosom toward God ; and when I see that generic 
 bent, I do not need to see God hi order to know that 
 He is. I see the obeisance which the creatures are 
 paying to their Creator. — See how these vines lean 
 and twine and cling and put forth their profuse 
 rootlets and tendrils ! Does one need to see the 
 firm trees and sturdy walls and century-defying 
 church-towers to which these epiphytes fasten 
 themselves, in order to know that such supports 
 may be had ? Nature is an ivy — a leaner and 
 dinger by its very structure, with tendrils and 
 rootlets innumerable issuing from all parts, and 
 reaching for support and nourishment to sometliing 
 indefinitely firmer and richer than itself; and I do 
 not need to see cathedral God in order to know that 
 this glorious support for Nature may be found. 
 The very structure and infinite tendrils of that 
 wonderful creeper proclaim Him. — See how mys- 
 terious instinct draws the babe toward its mother 
 the bee toward its cell-building and honey-making, 
 the silk-worm toward its spinning, the coralline to- 
 ward its submarine architecture, and each species 
 
252 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 of living Nature toward its peculiar functions and 
 line of life ! Surely, if one could know these in- 
 stincts apart from the things to which they point, 
 he would not need to actually see that mother with 
 his two eyes in order to know that she exists — or 
 that curious honey-comb with its plenum of mathe- 
 matics and nectar; or that cocoon wealthy with the 
 silks of Lyons and Cathay ; or that coral archipel- 
 ago within whose harbors navies safely lide, and 
 on whose fertile bosom tropical harvests bloom and 
 empurple — these things are all implied and sworn 
 to in the very instincts themselves. Such, from 
 babe to coralline, is Nature ; and the true Mother, 
 the infinite Sweetness, the gorgeous Robe, the 
 tropical Paradise to wliich it instinctively reaches 
 forth and calls, is God. Why must I see Him in 
 order to know that He is? The very instinct that 
 blindly draws and pushes everywhere toward utility 
 and beauty and goodness and worship announces 
 Him sufficiently. 
 
 See Uranus wavering and quavering on his Si- 
 berian path. Must I put a telescope to my eye, 
 and descry perturbing Neptune, before I send in to 
 the Institute my account of the new planet ? It 
 alone satisfies the perturbations. Still look, O Ger- 
 man Galle, and all ye whose faith in mathematics 
 and the law of gravitation is weak ; look toward 
 Delta Capricorni, and optically find what is already 
 theoretically known. — See all the path-bits of the 
 solar system curved as for a common center, and 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 258 
 
 lo, some of the celestial pilgrims brightly smiling 
 toward the same point ! Who feels that he must 
 actually see that center blazing as a sun before he 
 can solidly believe In it ? Why, all the arcs of the 
 system, great and small, unite in affirming that pri- 
 mate and metropolitan. — See Constellation Hercules 
 growing larger, year by year. Must you see, with 
 fleshly eyes, a flaming ellipse trending along the 
 abyss, and carefully take its bearing among tlie 
 stars with compass and sights, before you will con- 
 sent to believe in It? If so, alas for the Herschels 
 and Struves ! They are visionaries, and not the 
 men of science they have had the credit of being. — 
 See the proper motions of all Galacteal stars curved 
 as if for central Pleiades ! To know the reality of 
 that center, must I actuallv see it blazino; like twelve 
 thousand suns, and actually see It brightly zoned 
 about by its eighteen millions of completed ellipses, 
 and actually hunt down, one by one, as many 
 shadowy foci till they are lost to view in thy efful- 
 gent bosom, O illustrious and imperial Alcyone ? 
 Not at all. Forbid it, Dorpat and Pulkova — for- 
 bid It, the fames of Maedler and Argelander and all 
 most signal astronomers ! Never do I need turn 
 eye on the neck of Taurus. Its famous cluster 
 might be as strange to my sight as the lost Pleiad. 
 And yet I must believe. It is enough for me that 
 I know the law of gravitation, and have noted the 
 general drift of our heavens. This settles the 
 matter. Every bit of star-path out in yonder 
 
254 SEVENTH LECTURE. 
 
 vault contributes a voice to that euphemism "which 
 tells me tlie brilliant story of the Central Sun. I 
 am assured of that august nebular heart, of that 
 astonishing center of force and revolution, as 
 plainly, if not as impressively, as I could have 
 been by near sight. No, I do not need to see it. 
 No more do I need to see God in ord^r to know of 
 His existence. He is perturbing Neptune. He is 
 the Herculean Constellation toward which all things 
 sail. He is the metropolitan Alcyone around which 
 all things revolve. So I have no occasion to invoke 
 sight. The perturbations of Nature show Him. 
 Her orbits concave to Him proclaim Him. The 
 general drift of her firmaments announces Him like 
 a choir of trumpets and artilleries. Hail, Great 
 Center of re vol vino; being — as real as if we saw 
 Thee on Thy throne sending forth Thy beams and 
 government to remotest space ! The nisus has re- 
 vealed Thee ; and it was* not in vain that we 
 adjured 
 
 " Per magnos, Nisu, Penates 
 Assaracique Larem, et canse penetralia Vestae 
 Obtestor; qusecumque mihi fortuna fidesque est 
 In vestris pono gremiis: revocate parentem; 
 Eeddite conspectum ; nihil illo triste recepto." 
 
VIII. 
 
 THEISM 
 
 AS A 
 
 SCIENTIFIC HYPOTHESIS. 
 
 Yi//(o^7y VTrlp TTtti^Ttt, VTrepiofJiLav Kai i-rrdvix). 
 
 Xpva^La raXavra. — Tpwcoi/ X^P^'^ -rrpo^ ovpavov aepOev. 
 
 Homer. 
 
EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 THEISM AS A SCIENTIFIC HYPOTHESIS. 
 
 I ASK your attention in this Lecture to the su- 
 perior merits of Theism as an hypothesis for the 
 explanation of Nature. Notice that tlie hypothesis, 
 while perfectly sufficient, and, to say the least, a 
 priori as credible as any, is vastly the simplest, the 
 surest, the safest, the sublimest, and the most in ac- 
 cord with the convictions and traditions of mankind, 
 especially of the most enlightened and moral part 
 of mankind. Some of these particulars may appear 
 at first sight to address themselves solely to the 
 taste and interest : I trust they will be found to ap- 
 peal to the reason as well. 
 
 The Theistic Hypothesis is perfectly sufficient. 
 
 It is plain that a Being of power and wisdom 
 indefinitely beyond the human can completely ac- 
 count for all the wonders of Nature. Nothing 
 could be plainer. A child can see it as well as the 
 sage. The most exquisitely fashioned man, the 
 noblest astral system, the aggregate of the amazingly 
 varied organisms that crowd the earth and spangle 
 the sky — a God is abundantly equal to the produc- 
 17 
 
258 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 tion of them all. There is absolutely nothing 
 which such a Being cannot do with the greatest 
 ease. He has skill enough to contrive the most 
 exquisite things, power enough to accomplish the 
 hardest things, and comprehension enough to tri- 
 umph with these attributes over the largest fields 
 of beino- which observation has examined or thouo;ht 
 conjectured. As an explanation of Nature, the The- 
 istic hypothesis could not be improved. The 
 hardiest assailant would scarcely dare question its 
 perfect sufficiency. 
 
 The Theistic Hypothesis is, to say the least., a priori^ 
 as credible as any. 
 
 The various hypotheses to account for organic 
 Nature are as follows. First, natural organisms, 
 as individuals or races, are eternal. Second, they 
 were constructed by chance. Third, they were 
 constructed by law — that is, by blind material ele- 
 ments acting in obedience to the eternal laws of 
 their natures. Fourth, they were constructed by 
 God. 
 
 The first two suppositions are too openly in 
 conflict with observation and science to find any 
 supporters in this age. No one now supposes that 
 the individual plants and animals which he sees 
 about him have always existed as such. That tree, 
 that brute, that man — each of these individuals 
 self-existent, imperishable, eternal ! All the senses 
 of all men are against it. They protest in a thou- 
 sand ways that such organisms begin and flux and 
 
AS CREDIBLE, A PRIOBT. 250 
 
 dissolve with every passing day. Equally plain 
 is it that the races began — as plain as the 
 jcfneous and metamorpliic rocks, and the alphabet 
 of geology. — As to a man, or even a blade of 
 grass, becoming constructed by a strictly fortuitous 
 concourse of atoms, such epicureanism is now out 
 of date by many centuries. Chance — no person 
 of culture at the present day believes in such a 
 thino- ! Nor is it Argyle alone who believes in the 
 reio-n of law. The schoolboy or the schoolless 
 peasant does it as well as the cultured noble. All 
 persons among us now understand that every atom 
 has its essential properties and laws, which, together 
 with those of other atoms and agents, spiritual and 
 other, determine all its doings and experiences. 
 The very idea of hap-hazard died and was buried 
 at the incoming of modern science ; and every new 
 inquiry into Nature heaps new measures of dust 
 on the grave. So we may put aside the two 
 hypotheses first named. The comparison lies wholly 
 between the last two — between that of construction 
 by law and that of construction by God. Which 
 of these has the best claim on our favor? 
 
 Let it be observed, in the first place, that the 
 hypothesis of construction by God is, to say .the 
 least, fully as credible, on its face, as its rival. Of 
 course a person is perfectly credible ; for we know 
 millions of such beings in actual existence. Of 
 course a person producing organisms, and very elab- 
 orate organisms, is perfectly credible ; for we know 
 
260 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 millions on millions of persons actually doing as 
 much. An eternal and practically infinite personal 
 constructer of organisms is a more difficult concep- 
 tion, and further removed from our experience ; but 
 not more so than the eternal and practically infinite 
 material constructer of organisms which the law hy- 
 pothesis assumes; for 'it assumes what is really a 
 material God — an eternal assemblage of blind atoms 
 with properties in the aggregate fully equivalent, so 
 far as production of results is concerned, to that 
 personal power and wisdom indefinitely greater than 
 the human which the Theistic hypothesis ascribes 
 to God. Indeed, the construction of organisms by 
 an intelligent agent is wonderfully more conformed 
 to experience, not to say reason, than the construc- 
 tion of such organisms by mere blind matter. We 
 have no conceded instances of the latter construc- 
 tion, while we have innumerable conceded instances 
 of the former. Men do pltin and execute watches, 
 telegraphs, sewing-machines, pin-machines — ma- 
 chines beyond count. This is matter of absolute 
 knowledge. It is universally granted among those 
 who believe in knowledo;e at all. But construction 
 by mere blind force, is not granted — especially 
 construction of intelligent and moral beings. Only 
 a very few imagine such a thing proved at all, 
 and they in only a few instances, and that rather 
 as a i)ossibility or a presumption than as a demon- 
 stration. And just think of it. A mist of blind ele- 
 ments blindly shaping itself, not only into an infinity 
 
SIMPLEST. 261 
 
 of useful and admirable ol.jects — and such only — 
 like plants and animals, but also into intelligent 
 and moral beings ; into statesmen, philosophers, and 
 saints ; Into Napoleons, Mlltons, Newtons, Howards ; 
 in fine, into such books as the Principia or Paradise 
 Lost — for the author cannot be less wonderful than 
 his works. What says an unsophisticated mind to 
 the idea of matter, under blind forces and laws, 
 shaping itself into the Iliad, or the M^canique Ce- 
 leste, or the mosaic portraits of the popes that look 
 down so marvelously in long order in the Roman St. 
 Paul's ? Why, the very idea gives a slioct to the 
 understandlnss of most men ! It seems like an 
 Insult to their intuitions. It seems to defy their 
 common sense and knowledge of Nature. Blind 
 causation do such things ! To say that the con- 
 ception is hard, far-fetched, unnatural, is not 
 enouoh. It looks vastly preposterous. It begs 
 like Demosthenes to be considered a self-con- 
 tradiction. The man who accepts it instead of 
 Theism, has wonderfully the appearance of one 
 swallowing a camel after straining at a gnat. 
 Blind causation do such things — it seems a feat a 
 hundred fold niore wonderful than any ever attrib- 
 uted to a personal God ! Really, the hypothesis of 
 construction by law Is, on its face, greatly less, 
 credible than that of construction by God. 
 The Theistie Hypothesis is vastly the simplest^ 
 Each hypothesis, considered as an explanation of 
 Nature, consists formally of two parts — first, certain 
 
262 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 assumptions ; and, second, certain considerations to 
 sliow that these assumptions, in connection with 
 known principles, will explain Nature. In the case 
 of the Theistic hypothesis, the first part consists of 
 the supposition of an eternal Being with power and 
 wisdom indefinitely greater than the human, while 
 the second part is nil — no considerations whatever 
 being required to show that such a Being can 
 account for the whole hight and breadth of Na- 
 ture. 
 
 Not so with the law hypothesis. Here the two 
 parts are much less simple, being in fact two very 
 generic and comphcated schemes of suppositions 
 and arguments ; one called the cosmical hypothesis 
 for explaining the origin of worlds, and the other 
 called the physiological hypothesis for explainino- 
 the origin of the living organisms on this world. 
 The leading suppositions of the general scheme are 
 as follows : — 
 
 1. An eternal substance, namely, matter. 
 
 2. An infinite number of eternal substances, 
 namely, countless material atoms having independ- 
 ent existence. 
 
 ?. An eternal and infinitely complex scheme of 
 exquisite relationships between these countless, 
 eternal, independently subsisting substances. 
 
 4. These exquisitely correlated atoms tenuously 
 diffused as a eras or mist. 
 
 5. This mist vastly larger than a solar system. 
 
 6. This mist on fire. 
 
SIMPLEST. 263 
 
 7. Currents in this mist, obliquely toward the 
 general center of gravity and nucleus of conden- 
 sation. 
 
 8. Several minor nuclei of special condensation 
 distributed tlirouo;h the mass — each with its own 
 system of oblique currents. 
 
 . 9. All these nuclei such in size, place, and num- 
 ber, as to harmonize with the conditions of stable 
 equilibrium in a solar system. I call particular at- 
 tention to this last most voluminous assumption. 
 • These are only a part of the assumptions included 
 in the law hypothesis — merely leading specimens. 
 You observe that the infinite and eternal enter 
 quite as largely into this scheme of explanation as 
 into the other — indeed, more largely — while there 
 is no comparison between the two schemes as to 
 number of assumptions. 
 
 But, allowing these numerous assumptions, it 
 does not intuitively appear from them, as it does 
 from the assumptions of the Theistic hypothesis, that 
 they will explain Natin^e. Arguments are neces- 
 sary. No small amount of them is necessary. The 
 arguments to show that the foregoing postulates, 
 with the help of known laws of matter and prm- 
 ciples of science, are adequate to explain natural 
 organisms, may be arranged in three classes : — 
 
 First, certain ai'guments to show that all the 
 worlds composing our solar system, and the leading 
 features of each Avorld, may be naturally derived 
 from the foregoing data. These arguments are 
 
26-i EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 long and intricate ; and when duly spread out, make 
 a volume. 
 
 Second, certain arguments to show the possibility 
 of spontaneous generation of the lower forms of or- 
 ganic life. These arguments are long and intricate ; 
 and when duly spread out, make a volume. 
 
 Third, certain arguments to show the possibility 
 of transmutation of species by gradual natural de- 
 velopment of these lower organisms into higher 
 forms, and at last into intellioent and moral beino-s. 
 These arguments are long and intricate ; and when 
 duly spread out, make a volume. 
 
 Now, granting that the two schemes of explana- 
 tion are, in the last result, equally good at account- 
 ing for Nature, you observe that one is a vastly 
 more complex plan of explanation than the other. 
 With elements fully as difficult, one consists of 
 many parts — the other of few. With elements 
 fully as difficult, one requires volumes to unfold it- 
 self fully — the other requires only a few words. 
 Need I ask which is the more philosophical ? It is 
 an immemorial and indisputable canon of philosophy 
 to accept the simplest explanation of facts. 
 
 We have taken the law hypothesis in its usual 
 form. If any one thinks it may be made more 
 simple by supposing more and arguing less, let him 
 try. Let him reduce the second part of the hy- 
 pothesis to zero by introducing the following com- 
 prehensive supposition into the first part. Suppose 
 those eternally correlated atoms to have an efficiency 
 
SIMPLEST. 265 
 
 practically infinite — to have forces and laws which 
 as a whole are fully equivalent, so far as results 
 are concerned, to that power and wisdom indefi- 
 nitely greater than human which the Theistic hy- 
 pothesis ascribes to God — to have forces and laws 
 which are of themselves able to brin.o- the atoms 
 together into all the exquisite organisms that we 
 see, up to intelligent and moral beings. 
 
 Of course, to grant this supposition is to grant 
 everything. No need of any argument to show 
 that such an hypothesis will explain Nature. But 
 is such an hypothesis plainly allowable ? Does it as- 
 sume only what is plainly possible ? All the assump- 
 tions of the Theistic hypothesis are assumptions of 
 what in the nature of things are evidently possible — 
 an eternal person, this person indefinitely superior to 
 man in wisdom and power. But this last assump- 
 tion of the law hypothesis is a very different matter. 
 To take for granted that a mist of atoms, by virtue 
 of any blind properties whatever, can arrange itself 
 into that infinite variety of exquisite organisms — 
 and nothing but exquisite organisms — that we see, 
 is taking for granted a great deal ; is taking for 
 granted what one may well be pardoned for doubt- 
 ing. The possibility of such a thing needs mightily 
 to be shown. It needs to be shown that astonishincr 
 solar systems can result from mere natural forces 
 and laws ; that spontaneous genesis of organic life 
 in some low form can occur ; that there may be a 
 natural development of this low form, through trans- 
 
2n(] EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 mutation of species, into the most wonderful men. 
 The possibility of all this needs not only to be 
 shown, but to be show^n to a demonstration ; since 
 all the assumptions of the rival hypothesis are pos- 
 sible to an absolute certainty. It is self-evident 
 that there is some eternal substance, and that an 
 eternal person is, in the nature of things, just as 
 possible as eternal matter — self-evident that there 
 is notliino- in the nature of things to limit an eternal 
 intelligence to a given breadth of knowledge and 
 power — self-evident that there is nothing to pre- 
 vent that intellicrence from beino- as much greater 
 than men in these respects as man is greater than 
 a worm. Thus in the Theistic hypothesis. So 
 everything in tlie rival hypothesis must be put on a 
 basis of absolute certainty. That profuse argument, 
 drawn out tlu'ough volumes, which undertakes to 
 show the possibility of a cloud of blind atoms doino- 
 the work of an infinite God* must be made as strong 
 as Euclid. Every link in that long chain of evi- 
 dence must be forged by some Vulcan in the smithy 
 of geometry. On this plan of exhibition, the law 
 hypothesis will be quite as complex as on the other 
 plan. On both plans it is a most cumbrous machine 
 for its purpose — wheels within wheels in most un- 
 necessary and perplexing maze. It is the first rough 
 effort of the inventor compared with the instrument 
 when, at last, simplified into a tithe of its original 
 size and expense by the labors of many years and 
 many rival ingenuities. It is the long, rambling. 
 
SIMPLEST. 267 
 
 tedious process of some unfledged geometer com- 
 pared with the swift and laconic algebra of La 
 Grange. It is the Ptolemaic system of Astronomy 
 compared with the Copernican — the vortices of 
 Descartes compared with the Newtonian principle 
 and law of gravity. What manufacturer now uses 
 the first spinning-jenny of Arkwright ? What math- 
 ematician now works at his daily investigations with 
 the ancient synthesis rather than with the modern 
 analysis ? What astronomer now explahis the 
 heavens according to Ptolemy? Cycles and epi- 
 cycles and deferents and eccentrics piled on each 
 other — who does not bless himself that he is well 
 out of this tangled wilderness into the grand sim- 
 l)licity of the Copernican theory ? With a true 
 })hilosopher, nothing but the clumsy manifoldness 
 of the old system, as compared with the new, is 
 needed to secure its emphatic rejection. Could it 
 explain all astronomical facts equally well with its 
 simpler rival, it would still fail of countenance for a 
 single moment, as being essentially unscientific. So 
 should fail of countenance that complex and cum- 
 brous law hypothesis w^hich is the Ptolemaic system 
 of natural theology. However successful it may 
 prove in accounting for Nature — though it should 
 leave nothing to be desired in respect to clearness 
 and certainty of result — it ought to be summarily 
 rejected as being a tedious Chancery and Circumlo- 
 cution Office. What traveller rides with a fiftieth 
 or even a fifth wdieel to his carriage ? What Amer- 
 
268 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 ican, seeking merelj New York, goes bj way of 
 Pekln ? 
 
 The Theistic Hypothesis is vastly the surest. 
 
 It is perfectly certain — certain to- the apprehen- 
 sion of all mankind — that the hypothesis of a God 
 will account for all natural wonders. 
 
 Can as much be said in favor of the hypothesis 
 of construction by law ? Is its adequacy intuitively 
 certain ? Or has that adequacy been rigorously 
 demonstrated, level to the apprehension of all the 
 world ? No one claims it. No one dares to claim 
 it. Great effort has been made. Great inui nuity 
 has done its best. Years of argument have piled 
 themselves on years, and still the argument rages. 
 With what result ? The great majority of think- 
 ins: men are as unconvinced as ever. Thev do not 
 even find a modest probability in the scheme so 
 laboriously commended to them. And even its 
 best friends hardly jjresume to call their own ar- 
 guments a proof, much less a demonstration, much 
 less still a demonstration that can be universally 
 seen to be such. A certain amount of philosophic 
 credibility, or, at the most, probability, is all that 
 such men seem to themselves to have accomplished 
 by their long and intricate dealings in behalf of 
 spontaneous generation and transmutation of spe- 
 cies by natural development ; while to most per- 
 sons the whole scheme is a hopeless fbg-baiik — 
 very picturesquely constructed perhaps, and dis- 
 playing not a few showy battlements and pinnacles 
 
SUREST. 209 
 
 and prismatics — but still mere unsubstantial and 
 uncertain air-castles, liable to change shape and 
 even disappear at any moment. And yet, to put 
 their scheme on as good footing as the Theistic, its 
 ability to explain Nature must be made a matter of 
 absolute and immeasurable certaiuty to the gaze of 
 all plainest understandings. For, from sunrise to 
 sunset, and round to sunrise again, there is not a 
 person capable of understanding the proposition 
 who does not know, to absolute perfection, that an 
 Infinite Person could produce with perfect ease the 
 noblest and all things that make up the beauty and 
 majesty of Nature. It is as much an axiom to the 
 child and the savage as it is to the sage. So a 
 heavy demand is made on the friends of the law 
 scheme. It is not enough, should we find ourselves 
 unable to prove positively that this scheme is insuf- 
 ficient to explain Nature : its friends must show to 
 utter certainty that it is sufiicient, and show it to 
 the complete satisfaction of all respectable inquirers. 
 A hugely contested probability, timidly accepted as 
 laich by a few respectable reasoners, will not answer. 
 Euclid himself must not be more conclusive, nor 
 his axioms plainer. To secure this, all the parts, 
 scores in number, of the very complex scheme, must 
 be put on the footing of geometrical axioms. You 
 must do it for all parts of the cosmical argument. 
 You must do it for all parts of the physiological 
 argument — for the spontaneous generation, for the 
 transmutation of species, for the development of the 
 
270 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 oyster into the Newton. Not a single point in the 
 voluminous scheme must be left to rest on mere 
 probability. Should absolute demonstration halt at 
 a sinole one of these points, or at any one of them 
 fail to flash conviction like a sun on the most limited 
 of sound understandings that chances to glance 
 thither, the whole hypothesis would break down as 
 a demonstration. Of course such a Cesarean, all- 
 conquering proof, is not only unaccomplished, but 
 unaccomplishable. Not an instance of it can be 
 found in the whole kingdom of logic. 
 
 A man who, reduced to choose between two sec- 
 ular hypotheses in other respects equal, should 
 choose the one whose adequacy to account for the 
 facts is, almost unboundedly, the most questionable, 
 would not be considered the wisest of men. Sup- 
 pose you meet an English friend in yonder street. 
 '' How came you here ? " you exclaim. He informs 
 you that he came either by steamer or by artificial 
 wings. Have you any difficulty in choosing be- 
 tween the two explanations ? You can decide the 
 case swift as the flashing light, and with the mo- 
 mentum of a planet. And why not ? You certainly 
 know, as does everybody, that a steamer is adequate 
 to bring the man across the Atlantic ; but you do 
 not certainly know that artificial wings can do such 
 a feat. Very far from it. What you know is that 
 the possibility of such a mode of transit for men is 
 extremely doubtful, to say the least. Some ingen- 
 ious things can be said in its favor — witness Ras- 
 
MOST SALUTARY AND SAFE. 271 
 
 selas — bat to most persons the very idea is very 
 ridiculous, and to none is it more than plausible. 
 So you have not a shadow of hesitation. Instanta- 
 neously, your mind flashes its decision. Between 
 the hypothesis whose adequacy is perfectly certain, 
 and the hypothesis whose adequacy is, to say the 
 least, extremely uncertain, you have no occasion to 
 lincrer. You take the immeasurably surer hypothe- 
 sis immediately and as a matter of course. Your 
 friend did not, Daedalus like, transfer himself across 
 the seas by means of a pair of wings deftly fastened 
 to his shoulders. 
 
 TJie Theistic Hypothesis is greatly the most sal- 
 utary and safe — salutary for the present life, and 
 safe as to another. 
 
 It is easy to see that the recognition of a God, 
 carrying with it, as experience shows it generally if 
 not always will, a recognition of His righteous gov- 
 ernment — certainly of the possibility of it — has 
 greater tendency to restrain from misconduct and 
 to stimulate to virtue than has atheism. This from 
 the nature of the case. And experience accords. 
 It lies on the very surface of life and history that 
 Theism is better than atheism for the character, 
 the happiness, and the general outward prosperity 
 of communities and families and individuals. Such 
 has been the teaching of my own observation and 
 reading on this point, that I am free to say that I 
 had rather have my child worship in faith some re- 
 spectable Brahma or fetich than to have him alto- 
 
272 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 gether without a God. So felt the ancients, though 
 with but a small part of our experience. Plato 
 would have atheists exported far from his republic 
 as being a public danger. He would have their 
 children taken from them, and brought up as orphans 
 at the public charge. And the words of Cicero to 
 the same effect have become famous. " That such 
 views are useful and necessary, who will deny, when 
 he reflects how many things must be confirmed by 
 an oath, how much safety there is in those religious 
 rites that pertain to the solemnization of contracts, 
 how many the fear of Divine punishment keeps 
 back from crime ; in short, how sacred and holy a 
 thing society becomes when the immortal gods 
 are constantly presented both as judges and wit- 
 nesses." So spake classic antiquity. And modern 
 times, with their larger scope, venture to speak 
 still more strongly. To them Theism is like a cer- 
 tain geode but recently found. To them Theism is 
 like a certain flower just now becoming naturalized 
 in our conservatories. The stone was broken, and 
 lo, it was lined with beautiful crystals, and in the 
 heart of that rich casket a still richer crystal in the 
 form of a cross ! Some delicate petals of the Flos 
 Sancti Spiritus are drawn aside, and lo, nestled in 
 that fragrant bosom, looks forth what seems a milk- 
 white dove ! Such are the contents and implica- 
 tions of Theism — things most fair and wonderful 
 to see. Behold altars and homes and common- 
 wealths- — behold orders, proprieties, safeties, phi- 
 
MOiSr SALUTARY AND SAFE. 273 
 
 laiUliropies, steadfast consciences, regulated free- 
 doms, and durable civilizations — behold usefulness 
 and happiness and hope and virtue in their most 
 snowy and effulgent forms — behold, as I think, the 
 Cross and the Holy Ghost ! All these are seminally 
 contained in the Doctrine of God. It travails in 
 birth with these for all the worlds. 
 
 Whichever hypothesis is honestly accepted will 
 be measurably acted on. If that of a God is ac- 
 cepted, experience shows that with it, in general if 
 not always, will be accepted His character as a 
 righteous moral Governor. Supposing men to act 
 on the supposition of such a God, it is certain that 
 no grave harm will come of the action in any event, 
 while it may open on the soul the gates of eternal 
 life. But if men act on the supposition of No-God, 
 they may be ruined remedilessly in case there is 
 such a Being. Nearly all theists claim it will be 
 so : a very plausible revelation affirms and reaffirms 
 the claim in the most positive manner. And cer- 
 tainly, very severe results are by no means improb- 
 able. For, if there is a God, it is exceedingly im- 
 portant that men should know it; and if He is 
 rio-hteous — as certainly is not improbable — He 
 greatly desires them to know it, and has given them 
 suitable means for knowing, and so will be severely 
 displeased with their atheism. 
 
 It would obviously be irrational to choose the 
 least useful and safe of two hypotheses in other 
 respects equal. No man in his senses would advise 
 18 
 
274 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 such a step in secular matters. It would be alike 
 an insult to interest and to truth. I say, it would 
 be a libel and outrage on truth — that Divine prin- 
 ciple whicli is only inferior in beauty and majesty 
 to virtue itself, and whicli is universally allowed to 
 deserve the love and homage of mankind. Useful- 
 ness and safety are near of kin to truth. They are 
 its natural associates. Where they are found truth 
 is likely to be found. They are the surfiice indica- 
 tions of the gold mine — the Geology that divines 
 of it so strongly that men hopefully gather great 
 capital about the spot where trembles her rod, and 
 set to work. If observation shows anything, it is 
 that the most salutary and safe course is usually the 
 one accommodated to fact: and indeed such a 
 course cannot in general be that which is accommo- 
 dated to a falsehood. From the nature of the case, 
 courses accommodated to a falsehood, and so in pos- 
 itive conflict with the req,l nature and relations of 
 things, must in general be attended with more diffi- 
 culty, expense, and damage than those in harmony 
 with such nature and relations. 
 
 Tke Tlieistic Hypothesis is greatly the fairest and 
 suhllmest. 
 
 Other things being equal, the fairest and sub- 
 limest hypothesis has the best claim on us — on our 
 faith as well as on our affections. It has most the 
 aspect of a truth. 
 
 Soul — whether regarded as an immaterial sub- 
 stance, or simply as the sum of certain qualities 
 
SUBLlMESr. 275 
 
 occasionally found in connection with certain or- 
 ganic forms — soul, with its will, feehng, intelli- 
 gence, and capacities for happiness and virtue, is 
 universally felt by thinking men to be the highest 
 as well as the most mysterious sort of known 
 beino-. Not the o-n^^iidest masses of matter ; such 
 as mountains, oceans, stars — not the most subtle 
 and forceful material elements ; such, for example, 
 as produce the phenomena of light, electricity, 
 and gravitation — not any conceivable combination 
 of such elements, can compare in wonderfulness 
 and nobleness with the soul of a Newton. Much 
 less can any conceivable combination of such causes 
 compare in these respects with an Eternal and es- 
 sentially Infinite Soul that devises and produces all 
 natural organisms, and is capable of governing 
 them and all things with infinite wisdom and good- 
 ness. If, in addition, we suppose this great Being 
 crowned with the glories of an infinite and ever- 
 lastino' actual felicity and virtue — as ^ve are enti- 
 tied to do for aught that appears to the contrary 
 — a goodness efflorescing into every imaginable 
 beautv of hue and form ; a goodness bathing the 
 whole Divine Nature in the rosy lights of an un- 
 utterable tenderness and mercy and love, whose 
 warm floods overflow to the remotest terms of the 
 creation, and insure to it the utmost possible meas- 
 ure of blessed results — what shall we say of such 
 an Object ? It makes the heart leap to look toward 
 it. Never such a scene blushed under eye of trav- 
 
276 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 eler or pencil of master — never such sumptuous 
 palace or cathedral reared its wilderness of comeli- 
 ness and majesty on the sight or dreams of men — ■ 
 never such mountain-rancre o^athered clouds and 
 rainbows about its brow and blossomed o'er all its 
 mighty sides with the beauties of every clime — 
 never such central sun blazed and triumphed and 
 governed amid its coronet of rejoicing worlds ! O 
 wonderful Vision, O Colossus of perfection, O 
 worthy and worshipful Emperor of Nature, O fair- 
 est and sublimest Idea in the whole empire of 
 thought ! One may well be excused for preferring, 
 other things being equal, such an hypothesis as this. 
 It has the most claim upon him. What should we 
 think of a man who, being reduced to choose be- 
 tween two hypotheses equal in every other respect, 
 should choose the meanest and hardest-favored of 
 the two? It were an insult to truth. It would do 
 violence to the subtle instincts and proprieties of 
 Nature. It would affront the " beautiful and fit- 
 ting " of science. 
 
 The Tlieistic HyfothesiB is greatly the most in 
 accordance with the convictions and traditions of 
 mankind, especially of the inost enlightened and 
 moral part of manhiyid. 
 
 You could almost count up on your fingers the 
 men who, leaving the attitude of mere doubters, 
 have come to positively affirm and positively l)elieve 
 that Nature was actually produced in conformity 
 with the law hypothesis. On the other hand. 
 
ACCORD WITH TRADITION. 27'? 
 
 those who so positively and firmly believe in the 
 Divine origin of Nature that they could freely die 
 for their faith are almost innumerable. I would Hke 
 to see the man who could die for the law hy- 
 pothesis ! — Further, the Divine origin of Nature is 
 the strong popular faith of whole nations and gen- 
 erations, constituting the most intelligent and best- 
 behaved part of the race. Much of this faith, in- 
 deed, is not that of martyrs ; but most of it is a 
 faith that shudders at the very name of atheist, and 
 at the very idea of a godless universe. And the 
 Jews, the Christians, the Mohammedans, the Hin- 
 doos with their affiliated races — to say nothing of 
 smaller peoples — the believing nations covered by 
 these names include in their mighty circumference 
 nearly all the science and civilization and semi-civil- 
 ization and respectable morals the world can boast. 
 — Further, the whole body of mankind, past and 
 present, with a few trifling exceptions, firmly be- 
 lieve in at least one Great Intelligence of a grade 
 indefinitely superior to the human and worthy of 
 worship. Every nation has some divinity. There 
 is no country without temples, altars, priests. In 
 all climates, under all governments, through all 
 stages of society from the most barbaric to the most 
 cultivated, man humbles himself before great in- 
 visible personal powers. The traveler into unex- 
 plored countries about as much expects to find them 
 supplied with deities as he expects to find them sup- 
 plied with men. The traveler into distant ages, 
 
278 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 whatever direction he takes, about as much exj^ecta 
 to find men worshipping as he does to find them 
 eating and drinking. Whetlier Livingstone or Hum- 
 boldt — he encounters the supernatural at everj 
 step. Whether Niebuhr or Mnratori — at every 
 step he meets the immemorial traditions of the su- 
 pernatural descending upon him hke Amazons from 
 every point of the compass. The cultus is every- 
 where. And whether it points at the fetich, or the 
 idol, or the star, or the Grand Lama, or Brahma, 
 or Boodh, or Odin, or Osiris, or Jupiter, or Allah, or 
 Jehovah — it expresses the faith of all nations and 
 ages in at least one Great Superhuman Intelligence 
 who holds sanctuary within such holy names, be- 
 fore whose power and wisdom the greatest of men 
 should uncover, and from whose undefined and 
 dreamy greatness one should not be surprised to 
 see issning any conceivable wonders. I use univer- 
 sal language. It is because the dissenters from this 
 generic Theism are so few as to be absolutely inap- 
 preciable in the presence of the empires and conti- 
 nents and generations who hold it with a profound 
 and ineradicable faith. 
 
 What means this great Plebiscitum ? What 
 means this universal faith in at least one Worshipful 
 Superhuman Intelligence — this chain of such faiths 
 stretching away back into the mists of history and 
 even the adyta of primeval tradition — this chain 
 ever expanding toward Christian Theism as it 
 passes through the more enlightened times and 
 
ACCORD WITH TRADITION. 279 
 
 lands ? If any man says that it means nothing, or 
 that it does not flex Itself significantly In the direc- 
 tion of God, my eyes dilate upon him with astonish- 
 ment. Is he serious ? Does he mean what he says ? 
 It cannot be denied that universal and very an- 
 cient beliefs have sometimes proved false ; but still 
 It is acknowledged in practical life that they are 
 generally true, and are always to be accepted as 
 true in the absence of all positive evidence to the 
 contrary. For example. If it should be the univer- 
 sal speech In this community that a certain person 
 Is dishonest, one would not, anterior to a thorough 
 investigation, trust him as quickly as though there 
 were no such common fame ; especially If that com- 
 mon fame had existed for many years, and was fully 
 Indorsed by his most Intimate acauaintances — 
 proving that it is viewed as of the nature of evi- 
 dence. It is possible that the man has been belled, 
 for many Instances of such belying have been 
 proved ; but still that universal faith against him 
 is one of the adverse probabilities needing to be off- 
 setted and overcome by other probabilities. In the 
 absence of all discoverable positive evidence to the 
 contrary, the universal and stable belief would be 
 considered decisive against the man for all practical 
 purposes, and ought to be so considered. Is there 
 any positive evidence that there are no superhuman 
 Intelligences ? On the contrary, are they not 
 rather favored bv the fact of numerous orders of 
 llvino; beino;s below us in a Ions line of o;radation 
 
280 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 down to microscopic life ? What authority has man 
 for saying that the long line in its ascent ends with 
 himself,' or ends anywhere short of a Being of in- 
 finite proportions as compared with ourselves ? 
 
 Further, there cannot be sliown an instance of 
 dateless and universal belief which has maintained 
 its p'round without abatement amid all advance^, of 
 knowledge and morals, and which has even been 
 enhanced by such advances, proving false. The 
 false belief that the sun moves around the earth 
 was universal at one time ; but as knowledge in- 
 creased this sort of astronomy weakened and passed 
 away. The false belief in astrology, in the Junar 
 influence on the weather, is very ancient, and has 
 had almost universal acceptance ; but it has faded 
 before advancino; intellio;ence. The false belief that 
 it is lawful to worship many deities, and to repre- 
 sent deity under material forms, was for ages well- 
 nio-h universal ; but wherever at any time knowl- 
 edge and character have improved, polytheism and 
 idolatry have shown tendency to decline. See, for 
 proof, the French Positivists. But French Posi- 
 tivists were hardly needed to prove this to any 
 moderate reader of history. The chief Greek and 
 Roman philosophers seem to have always lived on 
 or within the verge of Monotheism, spiritual Mono- 
 tlieism ; and the more learned and better class of 
 Brahmins at the present time, when drawn into ex- 
 planations, take up very much the same position. — 
 On the other hand, this dateless and universal be- 
 
ACCORD WITH TRADITION. 281 
 
 lief ill at least one Superhuman and Worshipful In- 
 telligence has not been injured anywhere by a com- 
 bined advance in knowledo-e and character ; but 
 the reverse. The Mohammedan nations, as such, 
 believe as strongly as the pagan — the Christian 
 nations, as such, as strongly as the Moslem — the 
 most advanced Christian nations as strongly as the 
 least advanced. So far, indeed, from this belief 
 declinino; Avith advancino; intelllo-ence and virtue, 
 it shows in such case a general tendency toward a 
 more refined and stupendous Theism. Osiris, Ju- 
 piter, and Brahma, are far greater deities than any 
 worshipped by African or South Sea savages — the 
 Theos and Deus of such philosophers as Socrates, 
 Plato, Cicero, Seneca, far greater than the popular 
 Jupiter — Allah and Jehovah far greater than the 
 divinity of Plato's speculations — even Jehovah 
 as conceived by the cultured and saintty christian 
 is a far more glorious object than the average Jeho- 
 vah of Christian lands. In such lands those com- 
 munities which are the most eminent for intelli- 
 gence and excellent living are also most noted for 
 both the strength and quality of their faith in the 
 supernatural. See that swearing, swindling, drink- 
 ing, gambling, dissolute, and ignorant frontier set- 
 tlement ! Which has the stronorest and hio;hest faith 
 in the supernatur'al — that, or yonder cultured and 
 virtuous New Eno-land village ! See that sood man 
 of to-day ! Make sure that when, twenty years 
 hence, he has become a still better man — more sol- 
 
282 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 idly principled, more strictly conscientious, more loft- 
 ily just, more tenderly and actively benevolent — 
 his faith in God will stand on a still broader base and 
 pierce the heavens with a still loftier apex. It is 
 simple experience. Never stood pyramid more sta- 
 bly and sublimely than stood the faith of Sir Da- 
 vid Brewster at the age of fourscore and seven — 
 a faith that had grown through the long years as 
 fast as his ever-£i:rowino; intellio-ence and o-oodness. 
 
 Look at it. A dateless and universal belief in 
 at least one Great Intelligence of a grade indefi- 
 nitely superior to the human — whence came this 
 mighty epidemic ? Did it spring naturally from a 
 low moral and intellectual condition of the race at 
 large — as fevers and z^/ies/^^itz do from marshes 
 — or from the selfish efforts of governments and 
 incipient priesthoods ; or from both ? Either ori- 
 gin would be inconsistent with the fact that a com- 
 bined advance in knowledge and morals is found to 
 affect the faith favorably. Did it spring from the 
 evident profitableness of the faith in the sight of all 
 mankind ? This were strongly in its favor as being 
 true. Did it spring from the fact that it is intrin- 
 sically and universally palatable, if not profitable ? 
 Who can say that ? No-Religion makes no exac- 
 tions whatever : the easiest religion known to men 
 makes great exactions, and makes them constantly. 
 Self-restraint and sacrifice are the common and 
 statute law of every religious system. Not a wor- 
 ship but includes endless expenses, labors, cares, 
 
ACCORD WITH TRADITION. 283 
 
 and fears. Codes of regulations must be carefully 
 studied out, and watchfully conformed to. Pil- 
 grimages, penances, works from the twelve labors 
 of Hercules downward, must be accepted. Tem- 
 ples must be built, altars fed, costly rites main- 
 tained, priesthoods supported. In fine, to mere na- 
 ture, a reHgion is a cramping formula for this 
 world ; while it offers for another world only what, 
 according to the atheistic theory, a man is equally 
 at liberty to expect without a God.' So it would 
 seem to be intrinsically an unpopular system. That 
 such a system could have fought its way from noth- 
 ing into virtually universal acceptance, and main- 
 tained itself there unfalteringly from immemorial 
 antiquity to the present, without any real support 
 from either the reason, the experience, or the inter- 
 est of mankind — could even have brightened and 
 ascended with advancing knowledge and morals, 
 and all as the product of the hideous incubation of 
 wickedness upon general ignorance and w^ickedness 
 — is, to say the least, far from being a plain matter. 
 It has a strong look of incredibility. It savors 
 mightily of self-contradiction. Plainly, it would 
 take more argument than most minds can compass 
 to give even plausibiUty to such an explanation. 
 As to demonstrating its adequacy, such a thing is 
 out of the question. The very idea is absurd. 
 But if we suppose a primeval revelation of God ; 
 that the doctrine was gradually lowered and cor- 
 rupted to a great extent by the moral and intellect- 
 
284 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 ual lapses of the race ; that nevertheless it com- 
 mended itself so miohtily to their fundamental 
 instincts, essential reason, and great wants that 
 even such potent sources of error could never quite 
 overpower it among any considerable body of man- 
 kind ; and that, just as soon as these incubi are 
 lifted, the elastic and irrepressible doctrine proceeds 
 to expand tOAvard its normal and original grandeur 
 — I say, if we suppose this, we have an explana- 
 tion of the general faith in worsliipful superhuman 
 beings, and of its obvious partiality for intelligence 
 and virtue, which is perfectly natural and perfectly 
 sufficient ; intuitively so. The adequacy of the ex- 
 planation is perfectly axiomatic. Not a word need 
 be said in its defense. Especially in view of the 
 fact that all the most eminent mythologists of the 
 present day are agreed in the opinion that Mono- 
 theism lies at the foundation of all pagan mythol- 
 ogy. 
 
 No one who in these times and lands admits 
 wonderfully superhuman beings, but will go further, 
 and admit a God. As a matter of fact, those who 
 admit them do invariably admit a true God. And 
 it ought to be so. For this admission takes away, 
 on the one hand, the only serious appearance of aii 
 objection to a God, and, on the other hand, vastly 
 intensifies the difficulty of accounting for Nature 
 without Him ; indeed, makes such an account im- 
 possible, if we may trust tlie mathematical doctrine 
 of chances. The only apparent objection to a God 
 
ACCORD WITH TRADITION. 286 
 
 that has much weight with most persons, is His fail- 
 ure to manifest Himself in overwhelming appeal to 
 our senses and experience ; and this objection is 
 recognized as invalid just as soon as one admits any 
 invisible intelligences above man who mingle in hu- 
 man affairs. And, too, just as soon as one admits 
 such intelligences vastly above man and yet not 
 eternal, he has introduced into the begun Nature 
 that needs to be accounted for a new element of 
 difficulty vastly greater than any it before con- 
 tained. If it is somewhat hard to understand and 
 show how blind causes can produce an intelligent 
 man, it must be vastly harder to understand and 
 show how such causes can produce an Intelligence 
 vastly superior to man and able to make a man. In 
 fact, the mathematics of chances forbids our at- 
 tempting to account for Nature by blind causes 
 after tlie admission of such a Being. La Place 
 states the following law. The probability that an 
 effect is produced by any one of given things is as 
 the antecedent probability of that thing, multiplied 
 by the probability that, if it existed, it would have 
 produced the effect. Now, in the case before us, 
 3ne agent is admitted as existing and able to pro- 
 duce the effect. To get the entire probability that 
 it actually produced the eflPect, we must multiply 
 certainty by the probability that, if existent, it 
 would actually have produced the effect. Now the 
 latter probability is certainly greater than the prob- 
 ability that a competing blind cause, if existent, 
 
286 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 would have produced it. It certainly is more likely 
 that, of two causes, the one blind and the other in- 
 tellio-ent, the intelhixent was the author of an intel- 
 lioent being or even of the human body. We 
 know multitudes of organisms produced by intelli- 
 gent beings, and not one certainly produced by 
 blind causes. 
 
 Such is the Theistic hypothesis as compared with 
 its sole rival. While perfectly sufficient, and, to 
 say the least, a priori as credible as any, it is greatly 
 the simplest ; the surest ; the sublimest ; the safest ; 
 the most salutary ; and the most in accordance with 
 the convictions and tl-aditions of mankind, especially 
 of tlie most enlightened and moral part of mankind. 
 In each of these respects it has almost infinitely the 
 advantage over the law hypothesis. And, accord- 
 ing to the maxims and practice of philosophy in 
 other things, such an aggregate superiority as this 
 ouo-ht to cause the Doctrine of a God to bepromptlv 
 accepted and fully rested on as the true explanation 
 of Nature. Whatever secular hypothesis could claim 
 as much would be accepted without hesitation by 
 all impartial men. It would be considered triumph- 
 antly established. To oppose it would be consid- 
 ered altoo-ether absurd. And no man of science, 
 with a reputation to lose, would for one moment 
 think of venturing on opposition. On the contrary, 
 an hypothesis so strongly fortified with verisimili- 
 tudes and superiorities over all competitors would 
 ascend the throne of faith, and robe itself in the 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 287 
 
 purple of all her prerogatives, by unanimous accla- 
 mation of tlie Baconian philosophy, of scientific 
 usage, and of tlie entire college of scholarly men. 
 
 After the painting has been found pervaded with 
 Titian's characteristics, you have only to observe 
 that, as compared with other hypotheses in regard 
 to its origin, that which attributes it to Titian is by 
 far the simplest, the surest, the fairest, and alto- 
 p-ether in accord with the convictions and traditions, 
 especially of the best judges — I say, you have only 
 to observe this in order to receive it cordially as the 
 work of that old master. If able, you will give 
 your thousands for it, on the strength of your con- 
 victions. 
 
 You believe that Canova made that statue, An- 
 gelo that cathedral, Herodotus that history. A 
 neio-hbor has chosen to say that each of these won- 
 ders was made by a mollusk. This is his hypothe- 
 sis. Another has chosen to say that each of these 
 wonders was made by the great artist whose name 
 it bears. This is his hypothesis. Why do you ac- 
 cept this last in preference to the other ? Have you 
 made out formal proof that the oyster cannot make 
 such wonderful things — that though inert-looking 
 things are sometimes found possessed of prodigious 
 power, an oyster could by no possibility ever have 
 wrought that shapely Venus, or swelled that sur- 
 -^rising dome, or penned that immortal volume? 
 Nothing of the kind. You do not deem such proof 
 necessary. It is enough for you that the hypothe- 
 
288 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 sis which attributes St. Peter's to Michael Angelo 
 is on its face altogether reasonable, that it has in its 
 favor the whole current of tradition ; while, as com- 
 pared with the only competing hypothesis, it is al- 
 most infinitely the simplest, and surest as to ade- 
 quacy. You have no occasion to inquire any fur- 
 ther. It does not even occur to you to do it — 
 cautious Baconian though you are. In common 
 with the whole art-world, you instinctively accept 
 and rely upon the great Florentine with unlimited 
 boldness. The mollusk explanation is paraded be- 
 fore you in all sorts of ingenious verbal magnificence 
 and logical forms without making the slightest im- 
 pression on you. There is not a quaver in your 
 faith. It not only occupies you, but reigns — not 
 only reigns, but reigns indisputably. 
 
 So reigns to-day the Newtonian hypothesis of 
 gravity. It is everywhere supreme — in the books, 
 in the schools, in the innermost convictions of all 
 intelligent men. Nothing moves wing, or opens 
 mouth, or peeps against it. And yet do we see the 
 principle of gravity ? Not at all. Have we proved 
 by experience that each particle of matter, away to 
 the universe's last outskirt, attracts every other 
 particle with a force proportioned directly to its own 
 quantity of matter and inversely to the square of 
 the distance between the particles? Not at all. 
 Has it ever been demonstrated tliat the vortices of 
 Descartes, or even the crystal machinery of Hip- 
 parchus and Ptolemy, cannot be so amended and ap- 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 289 
 
 pendixed as to explain all the astronomical motions 
 thus far known ? Not at all. Whence, then, that 
 triumphant acceptance of the Newtonian principle 
 and law of gravity? Simply from its superior 
 merits as an hypothesis. Newton started a bare 
 supposition. It was found to explain fact after 
 fact. It kept on explaining. It has gone on up to 
 the present time triumphantly explaining, in fields 
 so broad, in fields so various, in fields so numerous 
 and high, that our confidence in its power to ex- 
 plain the whole round of astronomical motions is 
 quite complete. We deem it perfectly sufficient. 
 Besides, while, to say the least, as credible on its 
 face as the ancient Alexandrian or the modern 
 French hypothesis, it is vastly simpler, surer, fairer, 
 and more in harmony with the instinctive feeling 
 and judgment of cultured men. This is the whole 
 of it. This is the entire ground on which stand 
 the entire scientific world. Is it not enough ? Will 
 any one start up at this late day to reprimand the 
 entire scientific world for accepting and relying on 
 the great Newtonian hypothesis of gravitation with 
 unlimited boldness? And shall any venture to 
 blame the theist for accepting and relying upon the 
 Theistic hypothesis for precisely the same reasons 
 somewhat intensified and enlarged ? Confident as 
 the astronomer may be that the clew which has not 
 failed him yet in his wide terrene and stellar wan- 
 derings, would not fail him though his travels sliould 
 go on to cover all the fields of Nature with foot- 
 19 
 
290 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 prints, still what he feels is not such a confidence 
 as every sane man has that there is not a thing em- 
 braced by space whose origin the hypothesis of a 
 God will not completely account for with infinite 
 ease. This latter is the confidence of absolute, 
 axiomatic, immeasurable knowledge. The other is 
 merely the confidence of faith from a large induc- 
 tion of particulars. It is vastly probable — I con- 
 sent to say morally certain — to at least philosophers, 
 that this key of gravity will unlock the whole as- 
 tronomical movement : it is mathematically certain 
 to the entire sweep of humanity that this key of 
 Theism will unlock and explain as to origin all the 
 latitudes and longitudes of Nature. Further, in 
 respect to simplicity, and sureness, and beauty, and 
 accord with the convictions and traditions of man- 
 kind, especially the best part of mankind, the The- 
 istic hypothesis has far more advantage over the 
 law hypothesis than the Npwtonian has over the 
 Ptolemaic and Cartesian. And yet what a confi- 
 dence the Newtonian displays ! He threads great 
 sciences on his doctrine like so many habitable 
 Sflobes. He sails awav on his doctrine through the 
 uttermost depths of heaven as on some voyaging 
 sun. I will neither praise nor blame him. But 
 this I say, that if he is warranted in founding him- 
 self so mightily on that doctrine of gravity, we are 
 warranted in founding ourselves even more mightily 
 on the Doctrine of God. We have the best of coun- 
 tenance in making Theism the basis of rea? ming 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 291 
 
 and action to any extent. We have no reproaches 
 to fear from consistent science, though we proceed 
 to rest upon that Theism castles, palaces, cities, em- 
 pires, heavens of inferences and interests, answer- 
 ing to, but far nobler than, those which Astronomy 
 confidently reposes on her great hypothesis. 
 
 A word more. For what would a man reject 
 this vastly superior Theism ? What does he gain 
 by putting aside this account of Nature which car- 
 ries itself so regally, and before whose sheaf all 
 other sheaves bow down — the account which, 
 ■while perfectly sufficient, and, to say the least, a 
 priori as credible as any, is greatly the simplest, the 
 surest, the sublimest, the safest, the most salutary, 
 and the most suited to the convictions and tradi- 
 tions of mankind ? Is he afraid of a personal God 
 — lest that sharp-sighted Omnipotence should bring 
 him to account for his conduct ? Pray, in what 
 respect would he be better off with a Nature con- 
 structed by law ! Does the law scheme, neces- 
 sarily, do away with sin ? Does it do away, neces- 
 sarily, with responsibility for sin ? Does it, as a 
 matter of course, even lessen the avalanche of pen- 
 alty which the sinner may have to encounter? 
 Not at all. All these things are just as possible, 
 and may be just as great, under the one system of 
 explanation as under the other. If a mist of atoms 
 can really make this wonderful Nature which no 
 man could make unless his faculties of wisuom and 
 power were infinitely expanded — that is, if this 
 
292 EIGHTH LECTURE. 
 
 mist seethes practically with an infinite efficiency, 
 and its forces and laws taken together are fully 
 equivalent, so far as the production of results is 
 concerned, to that infinite power and wisdom which 
 the Theistic hypothesis ascribes to God — then we 
 have, to all intents and purposes, a material God. 
 We have matter practically almighty and all-wise. 
 It can do whatever an almighty and all-wise Person 
 could do. 
 
 Now if men choose to call this wonderful thins 
 by the name of Law, let them. If they choose to 
 say it is unintelligent, let them. But let them not 
 deceive themselves with names. What they actu- 
 ally have is something that can do things after a 
 manner of unlimited wisdom and power. What 
 they actually have is somethmg that can arrange 
 and adapt and exquisitely fashion just as if an in- 
 finite intelligence and discrimination, as well as 
 force, presided over the woi:k. In short, it is prac- 
 tically the equivalent of a God, if not God Himself. 
 Such a Dynamic as this, whatever name it bears, is 
 abundantly sufficient for everything. It can govern 
 men as well as make them — it can treat them ac- 
 cording to character as well as give them character 
 — it can give us a glorious Bible in words as well 
 as a glorious Bible in worlds — in short, it can do 
 whatever Theism commonly attributes to God. 
 Which is the harder — to make the arithmetical 
 machine of Babbage, or to use it as it ought to be 
 used ? No, the Something that can make a man 
 
TOTAL SCIENTIFIC IMPORT. 293 
 
 after a manner of infinite wisdom, can go on to deal 
 with him, when made, after a manner of infinite 
 wisdom. The potential Fog-Bank which is able to 
 make men who can. treat other men according to 
 character, can itself treat them after the same man- 
 ner of discrimination. So what do our atheists 
 gain ? What is their compensation for espousino- 
 the hypothesis that is the most intricate and far- 
 fetched and uncertain and hazardous and hurtful 
 and homely and hostile to the convictions and tra- 
 ditions of mankind? Their costly scheme — for 
 the sake of wdiich they are at the trouble and un- 
 reasonableness of such holocaust sacrifice of philos- 
 ophy and taste and utihty and venerable traditions ^ 
 — their costly scheme leaves men open to just as 
 formidable possibilities as does Theism. The sin- 
 ner has just as much reason to tremble before that 
 astute Cauldron of mechanical and chemical forces 
 that can make such a universe as this as he has to 
 tremble before a personal God. Those are won- 
 derful orbs yonder — this is a wonderful earth here 
 with its packed life — even this single humanity of 
 ours, body and soul, is an inexhaustible wonder to 
 the most dynamical philosophy — full well do we 
 know that the grandest man would have to de- 
 velop into infinite proportions of intelligence and 
 power before he could produce such an astounding 
 aniverse as we behold — and, what I have to say 
 is, that the primal Fire-Cloud which can organize 
 such a universe as this which only an infinite man 
 
294 EIGHTH LECTURE, 
 
 could organize, can, like such a man, practically 
 discriminate between our righteousness and un- 
 righteousness, and can, like him, pursue that un- 
 righteousness as an unutterable Nemesis through 
 all space and duration. Such a crafty Nebula is as 
 fearful as God — only it can neither love nor be 
 loved. It is as fearful as God to a sinner — though 
 the atheist will never beheve it, but will, while 
 treating law as if almighty and all-wise for fash- 
 ioning things, treat it as all-weak and all-foolish for 
 the purpose of moral government. 
 
AD FIDEM; 
 
 Oli, 
 
 PARISH EYIDENCFS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 BY TQE AUTHOR OF 
 
 "ECCE CCELUM" AND "PATER MDNDI." 
 ENLARGED EDITION. 
 
 Price $2.00 Sent post-jxiid on receipt of price, by 
 
 NOYES, HOLMES, & CO., 
 117 Washington Street, Boston. 
 
 " Ad Fidem " proposes to do for the Evidences of the Christian 
 Religion what " Ecce Coelum " aims to do for Astronomy. It pro- 
 poses to bring these Evidences, without any sacrifice of scholarly 
 accuracy, luminously and effectively within the reach of ordinary 
 minds. 
 
 The attention of pastors is especially called to this work. Unbe- 
 lief is trying hai'd to popularize itself The most taking forms of 
 literature are being used to insinuate doubt, and detach the masses 
 from Church, and Sabbath, and Bible. Unless the shepherds of the 
 people bestir themselves, a great calamity is at hand. They must 
 see to it that what the friends of natural science are so finely doing 
 for it, be done also for sacred science — that the Christian Evidences 
 be brought to the people in those forms which alone are suited to 
 interest and convince them. Cannot "Ad Fidem" help? If the 
 judgment of men of the first eminence is worth anything, this is 
 just the book needed for free circulation in the parishes. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM NOTICES. 
 
 From Rev. Mark Hopkins, D. D., LL. D., President of Williams College. 
 
 This elegant volume seems to me admirably admirably adapted for its 
 purpose. I am sure it cannot fail to do great good wherever it may go. 
 
 From Rev. Hoioard Crosby, D. D., Chancellar of the University of New 
 
 York. 
 
 Aa a Christian minister, I thank the author of "Ad Fidem," nh imo 
 pectore, not only for that book, hut for all that he has done in liis three 
 noble works for the cause of truth. If the sympathy and approbation of 
 his brethren all over the land is any reward for his labors, that reward he 
 certainly has. 
 
From Rev. Roswell D. Eitclicock, D. D., Professor in Union Theological 
 
 Seminary. 
 
 Its bright, fresh, vigorous rhetoric, is one of the least of its merits. 
 Evidently the author has himself felt, and so has justly measured, the 
 " oppositions of science " which he combats. Only so can we get the con- 
 fidence of thinking men, who are in trouble about the Bil>le. He does well 
 to make so much of the moral temper of the inquirer. I often think that 
 the apologetic literature of the Cliurch, from first to last, has done little 
 more than confirm and comfort those who were on the right side, and 
 wished to remain there. 
 
 From Professor Taylo-r Lewis, LL. Z>., Professor in Union College. 
 
 I regard it as a very valuable contribution to our religious literature, and 
 well worthy of the commendation the other works of the author have 
 received. It is cheering to find that the many attacks on Christianity, 
 under the names of science and free religion, are calling out so many liooks 
 of intrinsic excellence. The great clamor of the enemy sometimes causes 
 me to feel depressed; but such works as "Ad Fidem " assure me that 
 there is power in the Church, both spiritual and intellectual. 
 
 From Rev. Avstin Phelps, D. D., Professoi- in Andover Theological Semi- 
 nary. 
 "Ad Fidem" has given me great satisfaction. It has been a greatly 
 needed volume for a long while. What else have we in our literature on the 
 Evidences which puts sound logic into readable style, so as to command the 
 popular interest ? I know of scarcely anything. Pastors are hard pressed, 
 if I may judge from letters of inquiry which sometimes come to me, to find 
 something which their inquiring young people will read by the side of the 
 fascinating " Seers " of the Concord school. The author of " Ad Fidem " 
 will find many to thank him for supplying the want. 
 
 From Hon. Jared B. Arbuihnot, LL. D. 
 
 Those who have known the author as one of the ablest mathematicians 
 of the country ; as a close student for years, and, almost to the sacrifice of 
 life, of the profoundest branches of science; as a contributor to scientific 
 journals of papers bristling with the utmost resources of the Calculus; and, 
 ktterly, as the author of a book on Astronomy, which has gone into many 
 countries, drawn unprecedented eulogy from first scholars, and done more 
 to make the most difficult of sciences intelligible and impressive to the gen- 
 eral public than any other work ever written, will not expect to find him 
 treating any subject superficially. They will not find him treating the Evi- 
 dences in this manner. No reader of "Ad Fidem,"' who is himself a thor- 
 ough scholar, will fail to see on every page of this, as well as of its compan- 
 ion volumes, under a popular dress, the order, thoroughness, inmiense ibrce, 
 and severe accuracy, as to both thought and expression, of a master in the 
 exact sciences. 
 
 From Rev. A. P. Peabody, D. D., LL. /)., Professor in Harvard Univer- 
 
 sity. 
 
 The author, or rather his numerous readers, should be congratulated on 
 his continued and signal success in meeting the obtrusive skepticism of 
 our times. His " Ad Fidem," in the choice and arrangement of topics, in 
 
3 
 
 its adaptation to existing needs, in soundness of reasoning, and in a vivacity 
 and fervor which must command unwearied attention and interest, is pre- 
 cisely the work which the cause of truth demands. I am heartily thankful 
 to him in behalf of the public for his service in the Grospel. 
 
 From Rev. W. S. Tyler, D. /)., LL. D.. Professor in Amherst College. 
 Clear as the air, bright as the sunshine, refreshing and invigorating as 
 the northern breezes of this rare and beautiful season. There is in it a 
 happy union of sound sense, good learning, personal experience, strong faith, 
 and glowing eloquence, which bears the reader along as with an irresistible 
 current I admire particularly its boldness and directness. While there is 
 sufficient moderation and prudence in stating the claims of the religion of 
 the IJible, and the arguments by which it is supported, there is very liltle 
 of the apologetic tone — there is no hesitation in appealing to the con- 
 science and common sense of the unbeliever himself as on the side of the 
 Christian Revelation. 
 
 I rejoice that the author has been permitted and enabled to add " Ad 
 Fidem " to " Ecce Coelum " and "Pater Mundi," and thus to lengthen and 
 strengthen the chain which will, I trust, bind many to the truth. 
 
 From Rev. T. L. Cuyler, D. D., in the New York Evangelist. 
 Last evening my congregation enjoyed the intellectual treat of a brilliant 
 discourse, by the author of " Ecce Coelum " — that newly discovered star in 
 our firmament of letters, in regard to whom so much interest is now felt. 
 He is kinsman of President Burr, of Princeton College, and has devoted 
 years to scientific studies. While listening to him, it seemed as if the frail 
 form of flesh was ready to vanish away, while the inner soul was all aglow 
 with the intense blaze of enthusiasm for the truth as it is in Jesus. His 
 theme was — " The accord between the best literature and learning and the 
 Word of God." It was a sparkling chapter from his newly published vol- 
 ume " Ad Fidem." The book abounds in sentences which are finished with 
 the point of a diamond. Those who have read " Ecce Coelum " will be 
 hungry for this latest production of devout genius. The skeptic who can 
 read its honest pages and not find his infidelity shaken, would hardly believe 
 "though one rose from the dead." 
 
 From the Rt. Rev. Charles P. M'Jlvahie, D. Z)., D. C. L., Bishop of Ohio. 
 
 His admirable "Ecce Ccelum " had prepared the way in my house for 
 its fit successor " Ad Fidem." In the range of its argument and in the 
 force of its reasonhig, added to the beauty and eloquence of its style, it is 
 calculated to be, under the Lord's grace, eminently useful. The author 
 appeals to evidences which none of the wisdom of the wise (of this world) 
 can shake. 
 
 From the Springfield Republican. 
 
 " Ad Fidem " has met with much success — the first edition of fifteen 
 hundred copies being exhausted within four days after publication. It is a 
 vigorous and fascinating discussion of the Evidences of Christianity. 
 
 From the Interior, 
 
 The previous works of this author have been widely read, and much and 
 justly admired. The volume before us is characterized by the same clear- 
 ness and raciness, and will be read with interest by all cla.sses. 
 
From the Congregational Quarterly. 
 Dr. Burr has varied learning and remarkable rhetorical power. The 
 earnestness and vigor of his fiiith are refreshing, particularly in an atmos- 
 phere surcharged with a speculative and skeptical spirit. " Ad Fidera " is 
 well suited to relieve the doubts of the honest inquirer, and to strengthen 
 the faith of the believer. 
 
 From the Lilcrary ]Vu>-ld. 
 
 The author's fervor is exceedingly animating; the most indifferent reader 
 cannot dwell uinnoved upon his vigorous and glowing words; and those 
 who reject his doctrines, must 3ield unqualified admiration to the skill and 
 grace with which they are put forth. We have rarely fallen upon a pro- 
 fessedly theological composition so rich in the genuine charms of rhetoric, 
 so fascinating and persuasive in the delicate, yet forcible manipulation of 
 grave and sombre sulyects. Here is no dry discussion, no slow-going logi- 
 cal processes to disgust the reader with theme and thesis ; the discussion is 
 lively, the reasoning pleases while it convinces, and the impassioned earnest- 
 ness of the writer allures his readers into willmg tutelage, and brightens and 
 beautifies his whole work. 
 
 " Ad Fidem " seems to us altogether admirable. It will bear and repay 
 careful reading, for there has been no sacrifice of force to ornament. As a 
 presentment of the claims of the Biblical religion, in a form at once univer- 
 sally intelligible and universally attractive, we know of no work which sur- 
 passes " Ad Fidem." 
 
 From the New York Observer. 
 "Ad Fidem " will, we believe, be greatly useful. It is admirably adapted 
 to subserve the purpose designed. The author has made his mark as one 
 of the ablest orthodox writers of the present day. He is a man of thought 
 and study, and great power of expression. A short time since he burst on 
 the rehgious mind of this country wit^) a work called " Ecce Coelum." He 
 next appeared with a volume entitled "Pater Mundi," a profoimd, able, and 
 timely series of chapters, proving that science testifies to the existence and 
 attributes of the Christian's God. Modern professors of pure science would 
 fain intimate to the world that it is unscientific to believe. Dr. Burr has 
 made a book for these scientists and those who have been deluded by them 
 to study. It is easy reading, and we recommend it to the learned and un- 
 learned unlike. It will do them all good. 
 
 From the Christian at Woi'k. 
 
 It is a worthy compeer of his two previous volumes. Rhetorically, it ia 
 most brilliant. It is full of passages which break upon the soul like a rev- 
 elation, and in following the line of his arguments, the reader cannot fail to 
 be convinced that of a truth the Bible is God's holy Word. 
 
 We welcome it as a most efficient helper in setting at naught the efforts 
 which are being made to cast contempt upon the sacred writings. 
 
 From the Boshvi .Journal. 
 
 Another valuable addition to tlie solid and beneficial literature of the day, 
 
 from the pen of the well known author of " Ecce Coelum," and the almost 
 
 equally admirable " Pater Mundi." The present work is a most excellent 
 
 one, calculated in every respect to accomplish great and lasting good. The 
 
Evidences of the Christian Religion are brought within the scope of average 
 intelligences. The book fills a most important place in the domain of mod- 
 ern religious literature. The style -is graphic, powerful, and elegant; and 
 yet beautifully simple. His arguments, though conclusive, are within the 
 reach of the unlearned as well as the accomplished. Nothing hard or 
 pedantic characterizes any one of the sixteen essays of which " Ad Fidem " 
 is composed ; but the book is pleasant and profitable reading for everybody. 
 
 From the Methodist. 
 
 Dr. Burr's previous volumes have rendered everything from his pen wel- 
 come to thoughtful readers. His new book consists of real parish lectures. 
 It is a book of evidences skillfully wrought out, and the better for being pop- 
 ular. The author always presents a happy combination of scientific informa- 
 tion with cogent logic and a vigorous style. 
 
 From the Religious Herald. 
 We welcome another volume from the vigorous and attractive pen of the 
 author of " Ecce Coelum." For weight of thought, brilliancy of imagina- 
 tion, and force of style, it will compare favorably with his former works; 
 and this is enough to insure for it an extensive sale. 
 
 From the Home Journal, 
 This book will doubtless attract more general attention and be more 
 widely read than any previous work from his pen. The wi-iter's scientific 
 habit of mind and familiarity with the whole field of argument have enabled 
 him to give the proofs of revealed religion in a clear and forcible style, in a 
 way to aid many who are seeking settled rehgious convictions. 
 
 From the Watchman and Reflector. 
 
 The author who, a year or two since, so greatly startled the reading pub- 
 lic by vaulting into a first place among Christian apologists, is hkely to hold 
 what he so splendidly won. This last book is, like the others which preceded 
 it, in the interest of the Christian Faith. The pages sparkle with life. Its 
 poetic fervor, its wonderful massing of facts, its brilliancy of illustration, 
 its personal appeals, its resistless conclusions, make up a book which will 
 not allow the most prejudiced or indifferent reader to lay it aside, when once 
 it is fairly begun, until the last page is turned. It is the most successful 
 attempt which has yet been made at popularizing the Evidences of the 
 Christian Faith. 
 
 From the Western World. 
 
 The work is spoken well and widely of as a strong defense of Christianity 
 against the growing materialism of the age. Its author has a high reputa- 
 tion as one of the most powerful orthodox writers of the country. 
 
 From the Evangelist. 
 It presents the various branches of evidence in a very eloquent and effect- 
 ive manner. Moreover, it is peculiarly appropriate to the present state of 
 the religious world — estabUshing the foundations of faith in the Word of 
 God, and vindicating the supernatural character of the Gospel of Christ. 
 
From the Scottish American Journal. 
 The author of " Ad Fidem " is already famous to the world by his admir- 
 able little book, " Ecce Coelum." His books are probably more highly 
 and universally extolled than those of any other author — not excepting the 
 author of " Ecce Homo " himself. "Ad Fidem " will -undoubtedly add to 
 Dr. Burr's fame. It is a popular religious writing of the highest order, that 
 can be read by the masses, and that will not fail to accomplish a good mis- 
 sion. This book of itself is calculated to turn the tide against infidelity in 
 favor of the good old-fashioned belief in the Scripture as the Word of God. 
 
 From the Utica Observer. 
 Dr. Burr's "Ecce Coelum" and "Pater Mundi " have placed him 
 among the foremost of modern contributors to religious hterature. As a 
 Christian writer, his characteristics are great clearness, boldness, and en- 
 thusiasm. He seizes the sword of argument, and gives no quarter to 
 limping skepticism that quibbles over the Bible as a book whose Divine 
 origin is undemonstrable. His arguments are presented with remarkable 
 vigor and they cannot fail to strengthen the faith of the weak, and to " con- 
 found the foolish," who accept as confirmed a thousand facts upon far less 
 evidence than we have of the truth of the Bible as the very Word of God. 
 It would be difficult to find a Tolume of three hundred and fifty pages of 
 recent publication in which is combined more of sound logic and religious 
 fervor, or which is hkely to result in greater good than this. Dr. Burr is a 
 man for the weak Christian to lean upon ; for the strong and confident one 
 to esteem and admire, if not indeed to reverence. 
 
 From the Commercial Advertiser. 
 This is a very welcome book from the pen of the distinguished author of 
 "Ecce Coelum" and "Pater Mundi." It is written at just the right 
 time — at the time when the young men of the country show an unwilling- 
 ness to "endure sound doctrine." Dr. Burr is a bold champion of the 
 divine origin of revealed truth, and he handles skepticism without gloves. 
 Let those who desire to know the truth read such a book as this. We do 
 not fear the attacks of " scientists " upon revelation if those who read the 
 speculations of science will, at the same time, exert themselves to reconcile 
 history with Scripture prediction. 
 
 From the Advance. 
 A quite unanimous approval has greeted Dr. Burr in his labors as an 
 author, as regards the value of his thoughts and the attraction of his style. 
 The present work will meet with favor from those who appreciate the wants 
 of our time. It aims to present the evidence in favor of the Bible, not in a 
 dry, professional way, nor in a hot, polemic spirit, but with force and fresh- 
 ness, with appreciation of doubts and difficulties, and with the confidence of 
 strong conviction. The author has much tact in coming at his subject, 
 and his arguments are ingeniously constructed, and skillfully marshaled. 
 He keeps in view, also, a practical result, and aims to impress the conscience 
 as well as to enlighten the mind, insisting ever that the most solemn respon- 
 sibility attaches to treatment of this great subject. We like the book, and 
 wish it a large circulation. ^ 
 
From the Syracuse Journal. 
 
 Dr. Burr, the author, is a man in the prime of life, a lecturer in Amherst 
 College, a man of profound scientific learning, patient study, and withal an 
 earnest pastor, whose soul is aglow with enthusiam for the truth as it is in 
 Jesus. His previous works, " Ecce Coelum " and " Pater Mundi," have 
 created a new sentiment in regard to religious subjects, and won for their 
 author unbounded praise. They are notable books for the times, warm, 
 alive, eloquent. " Ad Fidem " follows the path they marked out. In the 
 words of Rev. Dr. Cuyler, " The skeptic who can read its honest pages and 
 not find his infidelity shaken, would hardly believe ' though one rose from 
 the dead.' " 
 
 From the North American Gazette. 
 
 The line of late publications indicated by " Ecce Ccelum," " Ecce Homo," 
 etc., the first of which is from the same pen that now gives " Ad Fidem " 
 to the world, can all be traced to the recent disputations in Europe over 
 religious fundamentals. Of "Ecce Ccelum" we can hardly speak too 
 highly to express the views of those concurring in its doctrine. It is thor- 
 oughly orthodox, compact, and thoughtful, and is a scientific as well as a 
 religious essay; a work not unworthy to class with the great efforts of 
 Chalmers. In half a dozen lectures it formulates more of the philosophy of 
 orthodox faith than can be found in a century of ordinary sermonizing. 
 This is the concurrent testimony of those whose opinions cannot be gain- 
 say ed. 
 
 " Ad Fidem " consists of a series of parish lectures, intended to settle 
 the argument in behalf of the Bible. Of the execution of the labor too 
 much can hardly be said. There is such an amount of plastic learning, 
 close logic, and happy illustration, as justifies comparison with the astro- 
 nomical discourses of Chalmers. Even the renown of Jonathan Edwards, 
 so immovably crowned, is brought to mind by the closeness of the scientific 
 analysis and synthesis used. And yet the whole is lucent to any ordinary 
 understanding. The work takes instant rank with the foremost theological 
 contributions of the day, and must exercise great influence. 
 
 From the Christian Recorder. 
 
 To secure the ready reading of " Ad Fidem " by those who have been for- 
 tunate to read "Pater Mundi," it is only necessary to inform them that it 
 is from the pen of the same charming writer. It is a handsome book, and 
 can be read with the most sensible joy. 
 
 It outrht to be a question with thoughtful men, how these books of Dr. 
 Burr can be placed in the hands of the people. We have not read " Ecce 
 Coelum,' ' and consequently cannot speak personally of its worth. The oth- 
 ers, however, we know to be books which the times demand. Could not 
 cheap editions be issued — so cheap indeed, that the very widest circulation 
 could be attained ? With these in the hands of the class that make up the 
 bone and sinew of the country, a strong bulwark would be erected against 
 the rationalism of our German fellow-citizens, the papacy of our Irish, the 
 infideUty of what few French we have, and the dizzy-headed nonsense of 
 the few native-born Americans, who, to get notoriety, are willing to play 
 the fool, in regard to the most vital of all subjects, reUgion. 
 
8 
 
 From the Philadelphia Enquirer. 
 
 This volume consists of a series of lectures on the Evidences of the Bibli- 
 cal religion, dehvered by Dr. Burr, the author of " Ecce Ccelum," a book 
 which has gained a wide celebrity, iu his parish in Connecticut. They 
 were not originally intended for publication, but the author says that even 
 if they had been they would hardly have been more careful in their state- 
 ment of main facts and arguments. We do not thinlc they would or in- 
 deed that they could have been much more exact or telling than they are. 
 Dr. Burr is an advanced thinker, and a man of great liberality, so far aS 
 his books photograph him. His arguments are both cogent and persuasive, 
 while through them breathes the all-powerful spirit of earnest conviction. 
 
 Fi'om the Congregationalist. 
 
 Some books are like a leaden rifle-ball; others like a cartridge, containing 
 not only the ball but abundant means for propelling it. Dr. Burr's books 
 are of the latter kind. This, his last, is not only a sound and good work, 
 but it- is active and stimulating. . . . We have a very able opening 
 chapter entitled " Presumptions," which is worthy of being a book by itself 
 
 so forcibly does it outline the grand general features of Christianity 
 
 Those who have read " Ecce Ccelum " and "Pater Mundi," will know what 
 
 style to expect in the present volume We accept this book as 
 
 one of real power. 
 
 From the Lutheran Observer. 
 
 The readers of " Ecce Ccelum " and " Pater Mundi " — and their name 
 is legion — will hail with delight this new work by the same " Connecticut 
 pastor," who has so strikingly made the heavens declare the glory of God, 
 and made the wondrous achievements of science testify to his wisdom, his 
 greatness, his divinity and eternal power. It addresses itself to doubters 
 and unbelievers with such an array of ^cts, and with such direct force of 
 logic and argument, that it seems impossible for a rational soul to resist its 
 conclusions. The book might appropriately be called rational and moral 
 geometry, for its conclusions are the result of demonstrations as clear as any 
 in Euclid. 
 
 The entire work characterized by great clearness and accuracy of style 
 and statement, and it meets the objections and cavils of cultivated modern 
 skepticism — the vague insinuations and sneers which float like froth upon 
 the current of modern literature — better than other work that has yet ap- 
 peared. 
 
 From the Christian Weekly. 
 
 " Ad Fidem " is a series of pastoral lectures to which the pastor has invited 
 the reading public. And the reading public will be very apt to come when 
 they learn that the lecturer is that same " Connecticut pastor " who fascina- 
 ted them with the contagious imagination of " Ecce Ccelum " and " Pater 
 Mundi." The same clear and cogent logic that in the former led us upon 
 stepping-stones of stars to God as the father of the universe, the same glit- 
 tering and brilliant style that in the latter led us through the phenomena 
 of nature to God as the " Father of the World," is offered in " Ad Fidem" 
 to lead us to God as our Saviour. With an air of confidence which be- 
 tokens deep conviction ; with an enthusiasm that is itself an evidence of 
 Christianity, he insists upon the honest application to the Evidences of 
 
those tests which are prescribed by Christianity itself. And this is done with 
 no juiceless language, but in a decidedly oratorical style, that will make the 
 book very widely poptilar and useful. Its very fault — excess of ornamenta- 
 tion and gorgeousness of rhetoric — will secure a hearing for the truth by 
 persons who might not be attracted by an ordinary book. 
 
 From the Eveniny Post. 
 Ve cordially thank the publishers for sending us this noble volume. It is 
 most fittingly dedicated " To Christ and His Church." The work is full of 
 irrefutable evidences of the Bible. In his delightful preface the learned and 
 gifted author says, " Not only was Diderot," etc. The Typographical exe- 
 cution of the book is faultless. 
 
 From the Neto Englander. 
 Its merits are similar to those of his previous well known and popular 
 volumes. The author has the gift of bold and impressive statement, .... 
 a vivid and telling way of presentation, .... the glow and power of 
 positive eloquence. The book will receive, as it deserves, extensive circula- 
 tion, and, as we doubt not, will achieve great usefulness. We congratulate 
 the modest and patient author upon the success which he has attained, and 
 at which, perhaps, he himself is the most surprised. 
 
 From the Express. 
 
 The argument is strong and the style in which it is stated clear and im- 
 pressive. The author is well known as one of the ablest and most interest- 
 ing of the religious writers of the day. 
 
 From Harper''s Monthly. 
 
 It is refreshing to come across a book written in a tone at once so candid 
 and so cheeringly confident as " Ad Fidem." We find throughout the 
 book, as Dr. Burr in his preface advises us we shall, " an air of great confi- 
 dence." At the same time the author rarely substitutes mere assertion for 
 argument, and never denounces as criminal the reader who fails to appre- 
 ciate the force of his statements, and to accept the opinions to which they 
 lead. 
 
 From the Princeton Review. 
 
 In this beautiful volume Dr. Burr expatiates in his favorite field of Apolo- 
 getics with vigor, tact, and eloquence. He rightly traces the fortress of 
 unbelief in the intellect to perverseness in the will and heart; shows that 
 the difficulties in the way of religious belief are no more formidable than 
 men encounter in every sphere of life without being stumbled by them ; 
 that with like candor applied to Christian truth all their embarrassments 
 will vanish, etc. 
 
 From the Christian Quarterly. 
 
 These lectures discuss some of the living questions of the age in a man- 
 ner at once able, pleasing, and practical. But we need not say this to those 
 who have read Ecce Cceliim and Pater Afundi. These will know that it 
 is almost impossible for Dr. Burr to write a dull book. Ad Fidem will add 
 to the author's reputation. It is emphatically a book for the times; and is 
 one of the finest defenses of the Christian religion that has been made in 
 this country. It does for the Evidences of Christianity what Ecce Calum 
 does for astronomy. 
 
10 
 
 From the Baptist Quarterly. 
 
 This is a new work by an author who has achieved a popularity as wide- 
 spread as it is merited. Dr. Burr writes in a style of singular fi-eshness 
 and vigor, groups his truths with great power, and communicates his en- 
 thusiastic earnestness to his reader. 
 
 From Scribner^s Monthly. 
 The Rev. Dr. Burr, of Lyme, Conn., has made a sudden reputation of 
 late by two attractive — perhaps we might even say brilliant — books on the 
 Evidences of Christianity. He has just published a third. Ad Fidem is a 
 rapid, popular, and eloquent summary of the arguments for the Bible. It 
 is founded on careful research, and is believed to represent the latest de- 
 velopments of BibUcal scholarship. There is no pretense of originality or 
 appearance of scholastic learning; but the author has what is much better 
 for his purpose, a forcible style, a dexterity in the use of strilcing figures 
 and examples, and a remarkable gift of seizing and retaining the interest of 
 his readers. He is clear, earnest, rapid, vigorous, and, above aU, enter- 
 taining. 
 
A REMARKABLE BOOK. 
 
 j) C C E C (E L U M ; 
 
 OB, 
 
 PARISH ASTRONOMY. 
 
 By Rev. E. F. BURR, D.D. 
 
 1 toI. 16mo, 198 pp. Price, $1.25. New Edition. Ser' prepaid by ma}\ 
 on receipt of price. 
 
 TsTOYES, HOLMES & CO. 
 
 117 Washington Street, Boston. 
 
 The Publishers request special attention to the following xm^ 
 solicited testimonials, which have been received from sourcei 
 worthy of regard. 
 
 From Rev. W. A. Steams, D.D., LL.D., President of Amhen'st College. 
 " I have read it with great profit and admiration. It is a grand 
 production, — very clear and satisfactory, scientifically considered 
 very exalted and exalting in spirit and manner ; and exliibiting a 
 wealth of appropriate emotion and expression which surprises me. 
 May the life and health of the author be spared to show still 
 further that God is and that His works are great, sought out of 
 tliem that have pleasure therein." 
 
 From Rev. Horace Bushnell, D.D. 
 " I have not been so much fascinated by any book for a long 
 June — never by a book on that particular subject. It is popii 
 larised in the form, yet not evaporated in the substance, — it 
 tingles with life all through, —and the wonder is, that, casting off 
 BO much of the paraphernalia of science, and descending, for the 
 most pan, to common language, it brings out, not so much, but »< 
 much more of the meaning. I have gotten a better idea of Astroo 
 
»my, a? a whole, from it tlian 1 ever got before from all jthei 
 sources — more than from Enfield's great book, which I once care 
 fully •;t 01 kid out, eclipses and all. 
 
 " T trace the progress made, and the methods of the same, and 
 seize on the exact status of things at the point now reached "' 
 
 From the Bibliotheca Sacra. 
 '•'This is a remarkable book, — one of the most reniarkahl* 
 nhich has proceeded from the American press for a long time. Tl 
 lifts the reader fairly into the heavens and unveils their glories. 
 The presentation is very full though concentrated, very clear and 
 animating, — with a command of language and a glow of eloquence 
 which is quite extraordinary. The last lecture is hardly less than 
 a Te Deum. The only adverse criticism which, on reading the 
 preparatory lecture, we were inclined to make, was, that the almost 
 impassioned eloquence with which it opened woidd liave bean 
 more impressive further on, and after the imagination had been 
 excited by the facts. But, after finishing the last Lecture, we 
 could not wonder that a mind so full of the great facts, and of the 
 emotion which they necessarily kindle, should, on seeing his own 
 parish charge assembled to listen, break forth in strains whichi none 
 but a mind fully roused by his 4heme and his audience would 
 have been able to utter. No person can read through this volume 
 without mental exaltation, and a conviction of the peculiar ability 
 of the author." 
 
 From the New Englander. 
 " It presents an admirable r^aum^ of the sublime teachings ot 
 Astronomy, as related to natuntl religion, — a series of brilliant 
 pen-photographs of the "Wonders of the Heavens, as part of God'g 
 glorious handiwork. The first five lectures pass the science in 
 rapid review ; the last treats of the Author of Nature, as related to 
 its leading features. There is not a dry page in tlie volume, but 
 much originality and vigor of style, and often the highes* elo- 
 quence. It is, withal, evidently by an author at home in his sub- 
 lect, not " crammed " for the task. It affords a fine example of 
 ffhat an intelligent pastor can do, outside of his pulpit, towards 
 training an intelligent people, and by imparting to them Nature's 
 
3 
 
 teachings, leading " tlirough Nature up to Nature's God," ~ the 
 God of Revel ition as well. To such a book the author need not 
 hesitate to affix his name." 
 
 ^rimi Rev. A. P. Feabody, D.D.^ LL.D., Preacher to Harvard UnivtrsKy. 
 and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals. 
 
 " Permit me to thank you for a work in which you have effected 
 a rare union of scientific accuracy, eloquent diction, and rich de- 
 rotional sentiment. It is attractive, instructive, and edifying. It 
 appears at a time when science needs, as never before, to be 
 redeeraei and sanctified by faith in Him, in whom are hidden all 
 the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And, best of all, it does 
 not make Religion cringe to Science, but maintains her in that 
 queenly status which is the only position she can hold. The book 
 must do great good, and I heartily congratulate you as its author.** 
 
 From Rev. S. E. Hnll, D.D. 
 "Ecce Coelum is much more than a book-success. It will be 
 honored as a most timely and admirable treatise to put into the 
 jand of thoughtful young people, to ' turn off their minds from 
 vanity,' and lead them to God." 
 
 Fi'om the New- Torlc Evangelist. 
 " This unpretending, though elegant little volume, gives a most 
 admirable popular summary of the results of Astronomical Sci- 
 ence. The author has evidently mastered his subject, and he has 
 presented it in a most striking manner, adapted to the comprehen- 
 sicn of the common reader, and enriched with pertinent illus- 
 trations. The book is perhaps the most fascinating treatise on the 
 Bcence which has been published of late years, ranking indeed 
 In many respects with that of the late lamented and eloquent 
 Mitchell. One of its excellencies is that it does not hide God 
 behind his own creation.' " 
 
 From the Religious Herald. 
 " A New Book, and one that is a book, worth its weight io 
 gold or diamonds, for it is full of gold and precious gems, — di»- 
 nonds of law and fact, — truths beaming with celestial light. I 
 
ppeak of *Ecce Coelum,' from the pen of Rev. Enoch F. Bcbr, 
 D.D., of Lyme, Conn., published by l^ichols & Noyes, Boston, a 
 duodecimo of 198 pages. Mr. Burr modestly signs himself ' A 
 Connecticut Pastor,' but some college has rent the vail and written 
 out his full name, and added to it a D.D. So much the better for 
 Connecticut and for the world. Such light as the book contain! 
 ought not to be under a bushel. 
 
 '' These six Parish Lectures are a masterly, vivid, easy, sub 
 lime presentation of the enchanting facts of Astronomy. They 
 are adapted to all classes, — the learned and the unlearned. Th« 
 astounding glories of the skies are tempered to our humble eyes. 
 
 " Let all read the book, old and young. Let it be found in 
 ev-ery school, in every library, and .in every home where wisdom 
 is invoked. Read it, and you will exclaim, what glorious light it 
 Bheds from the throne of God upon the lonely pathway of man ! " 
 
 From C. H. Balsbaugh, of Pennsylvania. 
 " It is certainly a wonderful little book. How the world 
 shrinks into an atom as we follow the lofty soarings of the ' Con- 
 necticut Pastor.' I never knew rightly what Dr. Young means 
 by sayir^g, * an undevout Astronomer is mad ; * but I now see and 
 feel the power and beauty of the expression. Such a book cannot 
 be read without laying upon us the* responsibility of a new charge 
 from heaven. After contemplating such grandeur, we instinctively 
 exclaim, * What is man that Thou art mindful of him ? ' " 
 
 From Hon. S. L, Selchn, Late Chief Justice of New York. 
 
 " A beautiful book. I admire it for the elegance of its style, as 
 well as for the lucid and able manner in which it presents the 
 noblest of the sciences. It will prove, I think, very valuable, not 
 merely for the knowledge it communicates, but as suggestive of a 
 ine of noble and elevated thought. And I am much pleased to see 
 from the numerous notices which have come under my observa- 
 tion that mj estimate is confirmed by many persons of the first 
 Rapacity for judging. To have written a work which receives 
 and deserves such very high praise from scholars and men oi 
 science cannot but be a source of great gratification to the 
 iuthor." 
 
ECCE CGELUM; 
 
 OR, 
 
 PARISH ASTRONOMY. 
 
 ELEVEISTTH EDITION". 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY EXTRACTS. 
 
 FVom the Theological Eclectic, [Edited by Professor Day, Schaff, etc.] 
 
 "The stfle is remarkably graphic and elastic, and the matter is 
 80 skilfully grouped and lucidly stated as to be level to all classes 
 of readers. The writer has a rare gift at popularizing science, 
 and his book deserves the wide welcome it has received." 
 
 From the New York Observer. 
 " We have never yet seen a volume on Astronomy that seemed 
 to us to explain more intelligently, to ordinary minds, the visible 
 phenomena of the heavenly bodies." 
 
 From the Congregationalist. 
 " We advise all our readers who have not yet read the book 
 entitled ' Ecce Coelum,' to embrace their earliest opportunity to 
 do so,— a book which certainly has been surpassed by nothing 
 of this general line, for many years, if ever. There is a grandeur 
 of conception— an easy grasp of great facts— a clear apprehen- 
 sion of deep and subtle relations— a power to see, and make 
 others see, the nature and extent of the heavenly movements, 
 such as are altogether wonderful. Many works have been writ- 
 ten from time to time ^to popularize astronomy— to bring its 
 great leading features within the compass of unscientific minds. 
 But we do not know of a work in which this has been so finely 
 done as in * Ecce Ccelum.' Six lectures of about an hour each, 
 tell the story, and the reader feels, all the while, as if he wero 
 upon a triumphal march. He is upborne and sustained hy his 
 
gnnde, so that he has no sense of lahor and weariness on i}'j& 
 journey. Tbe last chapter, on ' The Author of Nature,' is a 
 most worthy and fitting close to the book. We wish it could l)e 
 read by that great host of so-called scientific men, who are delv- 
 ing away in the mines of nature, with thoughts and purposes 
 materialistic and half atheistic. They need the tonic of such 
 Christian thinking as this." 
 
 from Hours at Home. 
 " This little book, from the pen of Rev. E. F. Burr, D.D., has 
 already been noticed extensively and pronounced a * remarkable 
 book ' by our best critics. The author first delivered the sub- 
 stance of it to his own people in familiar lectures. It presents a 
 clear and succinct resume of the sublime teachings of astronomy, 
 especially as related to natural religion. The theme is an in- 
 spiring one, and the author is master of his subject, and handles 
 It with rare tact, and succeeds as few men have ever done in 
 giving an intelligent view of the wonders of astronomy, accord- 
 ing to the latest researches and discoveries. It is indeed an 
 eloquent and masterly production." 
 
 From Harper's Monthly. 
 " The title page of ' Ecce Caelum ' is the poorest page in the 
 book. We have seen nothing since the days of Dr. Chalmer's 
 Astronomical Discourses equal in»their kind to these six simple 
 lectures. By an imagination which is truly contagious the 
 writer lifts us above the earth and causes us to wander for a 
 time among the stars. The most abstruse truths he succeeds in 
 translating into popular forms. Science is with him less a studj 
 than a poem, less a poem than a form of devotion. The writer 
 who can convert the Calculus into a fairy story, as Dr. Burr has 
 done, may fairly hope that no theme can thwart the solving 
 power of his imagination. An enthusiast in science, he is also 
 an earnest Christian at heart. He makes no attempt to recon- 
 cile science and religion, but wi'ites as with a charming ignor- 
 ance that any one had ever been so absurdly irrational as to 
 l»Daglne that they were ever at variance." 
 
 From the Evangelist. 
 " We have had many inquiries in regard to the authorship of 
 TScce Coelum,' the volume noticed somewhat at length two 
 
weeks since. To save writing a number of letters, we may say 
 here, that the Country Pastor, who is the author of these six 
 Lectures on ' Parish Astronomy,' is the Rev. E. F. Burr, D.D., 
 of Lyme, Ct. The book is a 16mo of about two hundred 
 pages, but in that small compass it comprises the results of long 
 study, and will be found as instructive as it is eloquent. The 
 grandest truths are made level to the plainest understanding. 
 We took it up, expecting little from its humble pretensions, but 
 soon found that it was all compact with scientific knowledge, 
 yet glowing with religious faith, and were not surprised that Dr 
 Bushnell should say he ' had not been so fascinated by any book 
 for a long time — never by a book on that subject ' — and that it 
 had given him ' a better idea of astronomy than he ever got be- 
 fore from all other sources.' We don't know if they have many 
 such ministers ' lying around ' in the country parishes of Con- 
 necticut, but if so it must be a remarkable State. 
 
 " While the impression of this fascinating volume is fresli in 
 mind," etc. 
 
 From Rev. G. W. Andrews, D.D., President of Marietta College. 
 
 " The author has succeeded admirably in his attempt to pre- 
 sent the great facts of Astronomical Science in such form as to 
 be intelligible to those who have not gone through with a 
 thorough mathematical training, and to make them intensely in- 
 teresting to all classes of readers. I cannot express more strong- 
 ly the interest the volume excited than by saying that I read 
 through at once. I can hardly remember when I have done the 
 same with another work." 
 
 From Rev. Edwin Hall, D.D., Professor in Auburn Theological Seminary 
 "I received it last night, and have read it through with intensb 
 interest and delight. It is a worthy book on a mighty themev 
 I wish it might be in every liousehold, and read by everybody. 
 And I am siu-e it will be read with admiration and wonder long 
 after the author shall have been gathered to his fixthers." 
 
 From Rev. Prof. E. W. Hooker, D. D. 
 " The book i;3 an admirable argument from the discoveries of 
 modern Astronomers, for the existence of God ; and indirectly 
 for the truth of the Gospel. It is an honor to his kindred, to the 
 
Church and the place of his birth, and, above all, to Him whose pros- 
 pel he preaches." 
 
 From an Obituary of Rev. S. L. Pomroy, D.D., late Secretary of tht 
 
 A. B. a F. M. 
 
 " He was a man of extensive information, a ripe scholar, and he 
 retained his scholarly habits and tastes to the last. A few weeks 
 eince he read * Ecce Ccelum' with great pleasure and satisfaction, 
 When he returned it he remarked, * I have read it all twice, parts of 
 it three times, and have noted down certain passages.' He was spec- 
 ially delighted with the arrangement of the work — the grouping of 
 the different system so as to give us something like a comprehensive 
 idea of the grand whole." 
 
 From the Congregational Quarterly. 
 
 That a Connecticut Pastor should be able in six lectures to his peo- 
 ble to shed more light on this profound subject — to make it more 
 simple and yet more grand, amazing, and impressive — than many 
 of the great masters who have written before him is a matter of sur- 
 prise. Yet this seems to be the generally conceded opinion of the 
 press. We hear but one testimony concerning Ecce Coelum. Any 
 intelligent reader of it can understand what before has been only a 
 mystery. It is worthy of the widest circulation. 
 
 From the Lawrence AmeHcan. 
 
 There is not a dry page in these six lectures ; but the glories of the 
 skies are . presented in a most enchanting manner, vivid, popular, 
 grand, and glowing. Young and old should read it. 
 
 From The Christian Union. 
 We can commend this book in the heartiest manner. It is one of the 
 noblest examples of the moral uses of astronomy that have appeared 
 since Chalmer's astronomical sermons. Besides their intrinsic 
 merit, these lectures show what may be done by a quiet pastor of a 
 village church for the instruction of his people. Every preacher has 
 not the equipment required for a course of scientific lectures : but 
 " where there is a will there is a way," and much more might be 
 done than is done in broadening a pastor's literary education and ie 
 raising the literary tastes of his people. 
 
PATER MUNDI, 
 
 OR, 
 
 MODERN SCIENCE TESTIFYING 
 
 TO THB 
 
 HEAVENLY FATHER. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF "ECCE CCELUM.'^ 
 
 The First Series is now ready. Tinted paper. 300 pp. 12mo. 
 Price, $1.50. Sent post-paid on receipt of the price, by 
 
 NOYES, HOLMES, & COMPANY, 
 117 Wash-ington Street, Boston. 
 
 The publishers of Ecce Coelum now solicit the attention of 
 scholars and of the public at large, to a still more important 
 work by the same author. Fater Mundi is believed to meet a 
 great need of the times. Men are busy, as never before, at taking 
 away the ancient Jehovah in the name of Science. In book?, in 
 popular lectures, in journals having wide circulation and relig- 
 ious pretensions, and even in colleges whose founders hoped and 
 demanded better things from them, the public is being industri- 
 ously persuaded that it is scientific as well as natural to be with- 
 out God in the world. Let all who would see for themselves 
 liow little ground exists for such claims, read Pater Mundi ; and 
 let all who wish well to the popular faith, to our holy religion, 
 ind to the safety of society, promote its circulation to the ut- 
 most. It is a book for the times. Though in the form of col- 
 lege lectures, and claiming scientific thoroughness, it is believed 
 Lo be easy and luminous reading for all classes. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM NOTICES. 
 
 Ffom the Rev. W. A. Steams, D.D., L.L.D., President of Amherst College 
 
 I have heard them with the deepest interest. They are so clear, so log 
 ical, so rich in illustration, so unexceptionable and beautiful in style, anl 
 60 conclusive in the argument attempted, that I have profoundly ad- 
 mired them. Those gentlemen who heard them when delivered here, 
 would, I am sure, from the comments which they made upon them, agree • 
 with me entirely in the judgment I have expressed. May the Great Being 
 whose existence these lectures so nobly defend from the attacks of the 
 tuolish, though calling themselves scientists and philosophers, spare the 
 life of the author and enable him to complete the full course of thinking 
 on which he has so triumphantly entered and advanced. 
 
 From Rev. Prof. C. S. Lyman, of Tale College. 
 All whom I have heard speak of these lectures have expressed for them 
 the highest admiration. In thought and diction they are worthy of 
 Chalmers. 
 
 From Prof. Julius H. Seelye, Professor of Mental and Moral Philoso- 
 phy in Amherst College. 
 
 It is with great delight that I have received the new book. I like, es- 
 pecially, its whole attitude respecting the question discussed; that it is so 
 fall of faith and so uncompromising. Atheism is as unworthy the intel- 
 lect, as it is repugnant to the heart; and I am tired of tame apologies 
 from timid believers in a God. I like to see a book that has something 
 of a clarion ring about it, and is not afraid to defy denial, when it speaks 
 of the being and the glory of the Ileaveuly Father. 
 
 I believe that Pater Mundi will do great good, and I thank the Lord 
 for permitting the author to prepare ami publish it. 
 
 From Rev. A. P. Peabody, D.D. L.L.D., Preacher to Harvard Uni 
 versify, and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals. 
 
 I thank the author with all my heart for Pater Mundi. It is the most 
 efhcient work of its class which the present generation has produced; 
 and as the now existing scepticism is deeper, more [pseudo] scientific, 
 more pretentious, than that of any preceding age; the book which, like 
 Pater Mundi, Is adapted to our times, must need be both broader and 
 more profound than previous needs have elicited. Its treatment of the 
 great theme is at once thoroughly philosophical and populor, both in 
 Btvle and in adaptation to the capacity of all readers of average intelli" 
 gence. It was an unspeakable privilege to the students of Amherst Col- 
 lege, to have heard the lectures; I trust that the same privilege will be 
 extended through the press to thousands of our young men. While T 
 find no fault nor deficiency in the treatment of any branch of the argu- 
 
flaont, T am especially iraprossed by the Seventh Lecture, as tho clfarost, 
 strongest, and most eloquent statement of the need of God, and ot tho 
 demonstration thence resultinp; of His existence, in the plenitude of Ilia 
 attributes, that iias come within the range of my reading. 
 
 From liev. Albert Barnes, 
 
 \ was so profoundly impressed, or, if I may say so, oppressed and over- 
 wnolmed with the sublimity and grandeur of the truths presented in Eccfl 
 Ccehim, and with the manner in which the author presented these great 
 truths, that I am glad he has followed with another volume on the i-iirae 
 general subject. I anticipate in the perusal of it great pleasure and 
 proOt. I think the author is doing great service to the cause of truth 
 and I hope that God will spare him to complete his work. 
 
 So far as I am able to judge, the greatest enemy which Christianity has 
 to encounter now, is found in the oppositions of science, so-called. In 
 fact, so far as I understand them, the aim and tend -ncy of much of this 
 science, are to blank Atheism; and I think a man can do no better service 
 in this age, than to meet and counteract this tendency. I rejoice that 
 God raises up men who are qualified to do it, I believe that the author of 
 Kcce CcElura is such a man. He has a noble work before liim, and I liope 
 be will be enabled to do it. 
 
 From the Independent. 
 
 We had not read Ecce Ccelum, and imagined that the enconiums which 
 we had seen pronounced upon it must be too high wrought for sober 
 truth. But now that we have read Pater Mundi, by the same author, we 
 are ready to believe every word of praise to have been within bounds* 
 The present volume is no dry, didactic treatise. It is warm, alive, elo- 
 quent. The author proves himself, in his freshness of thought and in the 
 eloquence of his argument, inferior to no writer of the day. We find no 
 slips in science, nor in his multiplied illustrations from ancient and mod- 
 ern literature. And we do find a grandeur of conception and a striking 
 i>riginality of conception, so audacious that scarcely any other writer we 
 know of would haf e ventured upon it. We see no reason why our au- 
 thor's writings should not become classics in the language. Nothing can 
 be more invigorating to the thoughtful reader. 
 
 From the Congregationalist. 
 
 We have read it with, keen enjoyment, and are disposed to regard it a3 
 he rao.^t substantial and serviceable contribution to the natural theology 
 of this generation, as it is the freshest and most popular. No better book 
 none more entertaining, can be placed in the hands of inquisitive readers, 
 e.-pecially bright minded young men and women- The author lays out his 
 work with a singularly clear perception of the crepuscular skepticism 
 K!iicl» needs to be dissipated; and ent^r* upon it with manly and gener- 
 
ftus fairness of statement, rigor of argument, and amplitude of apposite 
 and convincing illustration. His style is in the main so admirable, that 
 it may seem ungenerous to take exceptions. Probably the excess of 
 ornamentation, the overfulness of illustration, the easy affluence of the 
 most highly poetic diction, and the general gorgeousness of rhetoric will 
 secure a hearing for the truth by persons whom it Is desirable to influ- 
 ence, who might not be attracted by an ordinary book. 
 
 From ike Hours at Home. 
 
 The decidedly oratorical style Mrill serve to make the essays, incisive- 
 eloquent, and eminently philosophical as we acknowledge them to be— all 
 the more widely popular and useful. 
 
 From the Religious Herald, 
 
 Cogent argument i.s so lighted up with brilliant illustration, as to make 
 interesting the profoundest thoughts. 
 
 From the Christian Union. Itev. H. W. Deecher. 
 
 The author, who, in Ecce Ccelum, established a reputation for that rare 
 combination of excellencies— fTvid rhetoric, scientific accuracy, and com- 
 mon sense— has produced another book designed to defend and illTstrate 
 the doctrine of Theism. It is like breathing mountain air to feel this 
 man's earnestness; it is a true mental tonic. One sees instantly that he 
 is able-souled, that he can push and climb without getting short of 
 breath; and it is almost a foregone conclusion, after reading the first 
 chapter, that one must either stride with him to his high conclusion, or 
 part company before starting. This unequivocal earnestness and power 
 display themselves at the outset; great heart is warmed up to begin with; 
 BO that one is almost inclined to distrust a leader who has so much the air 
 of a partisan. The face set like a flint d(te3 not wait to be struck to emit 
 its sparks, but glows with a fiery zeal which inflames everything it looks 
 upon. Yet, no candid reader will say that Dr. Burr is dogmatic; he 
 only plies error with weapons for which infidelity ha^ claimed a patent 
 right. No one who reads this first volume, will wish tliat the author had 
 written less or otherwise than he has. 
 
 From the Advance. 
 
 The previous work entitled Ecce Coelum, received the highest commend- 
 ation from the most competent judges. The present volume will still Cur- 
 thcr augment the reputation of the author as a thinker and writer. He 
 puts the Atheistic hypothesis to severe and annihilating tests; fully meet- 
 ing its objections and cavils. The arguments of this work are not only 
 cogent, but are expressed in a lucid, glowing, and eloquent style; and tlif 
 book entitles the writer to a position among our best religious authors 
 
Fr\f .*tv. Edwin Hall, D.D., Professor in Auburn llieologicaj Seminary 
 
 I h^ve read the work with constantly increasing satisfaction and delight 
 It is entirely worthy of the author of Ecce Cce/iim and of its subjtct. He 
 far as my reading extends— and I have long endeavored to read in that de- 
 partment wliatever I Qould lay my hands on that promised to give me 
 light — I regard it as the most original and valuable contribution to the 
 Bubject, which the age has produced. I shall wait with longing for the 
 second volume. In the meantime, I hope the work may have a circula- 
 tion as extensive as its worth deserves. If it were left for me to fix that 
 desert, there should not be a library or a family in the land without it. 
 From the Watchman and Reflector. 
 
 The thousands of readers of "Ecce Ccelum" have not got fairly over the 
 feeling of astonishment and admiration which the perusal of that remark- 
 able book brought to them, before another of equal merit from the same 
 author is announced. "Pater Mundi," we are confident, will lessen noth- 
 ing of the high character which Dr. Burr has won as an acute and accu- 
 rate thinker, an accomplished scholar, a brilliant rhetorician, and a 
 humble, childlike believer in God and His revelation. The purpose of the 
 author is to defend and illustrate Theism and Christianity from the side of 
 Modern Science. There is a wonderful candor in the entire process of ar- 
 gumentation. Nothing is assumed beyond what the eyes of man behold 
 and his reason assents to. The conclusion, without being asserted, is irre- 
 sistibly forced into one's own view, and wins acceptance from the thought- 
 ful, reasonable soul. The eloquence of some of these passages respecting 
 the fatherhood of God is overwhelming in effect. "We earnestly com- 
 mend the book to the careful study of our so-called scientific men who are 
 trying hard to rule a personal God out of the universe. We wish, too, 
 that every young man in the nation would read these pages. \Ye are sure 
 that nothing more fascinating in interest and really healthful and elevat- 
 ing In influence can be found among all the books of the day. The book 
 is handsomely printed by Nichols & Noyes of this city. 
 
 From the Sunday School Times. 
 
 This volume is an eloquent and unanswerable protest against modern 
 atheism in all its forms. "Modern science testifying to the Heavenly 
 Father," is the author's secondary title, and it describes accurately the 
 course and object of his argument. His methods of presenting the sub- 
 ject, however, are entirely original, and are wonderfully effective. The 
 rvork is particularly opportune. There are in all our congregations 
 thoughtful, cultivated, quiet men, whose faith has been shaken by the bold 
 assumptions of infidel scientists. Dr. Burr's book is just suited to restore 
 guch persons to their equilibrium. It is written in a most attractive styk* 
 
und shows a masculine vigor of thought that carnot fail to command re- 
 spect. 
 
 From the Theological Eclectic. Professors Day, Schaff, etc. 
 
 We have already spoken of the able work entitled Ecce Ccelum, in terms 
 of high commendation. The present work by the same author exhibits 
 the same power of comprehensive grouping and vivid presentation, and 
 abounds in great thoughts freshly put. 
 From Rev. Mark Hopkins, D.D.. L.L.D., President of Williams College, 
 
 I am greatly indebted to the author of Pater Mundi. It is a fre»h and 
 powerful work. If any commendation from me will aid its circulation, 
 it is freely given. 
 
 From C. H. Balshaugh, Pa. 
 Certainly this is a book to stop the mouth of skeptics. It seems to me 
 that never was atheism in its protean forms more squarely met on its own 
 ground, and never more clearly discomfited with its own weapons. No 
 two links of its argument are left together. The author has triumphantly 
 vindicated the title of his book. Its matter and style appeal to both our 
 innate susceptibility to truth, and our sense of the beautiful. In my view, 
 never did logic and poetry more heartily embrace each other; never did 
 beauty smile more divinely on the face of the sternest facts. 
 
 From the New York Evening Post. 
 
 The clear and beautiful logic, and the crystal style of Ecce Ccelum, fas- 
 cinated religious minds everywhere in this country. This book is written 
 by the same perspicuous pen. That it is in the form of lectures, rather 
 improves it than otherwise. The special aim of the author is to wrest 
 from the wild materials of this day the powerful sceptre of science, which 
 they have seemed to wield. All the teachings of science and nature 
 point to the "Father of the World." This book is one calculated to 
 strengthen the faith of professors of religion, and to lead captive young 
 minds straying into error. We ought to mention in closing, the beautiful 
 typography of the book. Published by Nichols & Noyes. 
 From the Evening Wisconsin, Mihcaukee. 
 
 The style is clear, and always strong and forcible in an unusual degree 
 while many passages rise to great beauty and eloquence. Seldom have we 
 read anything upon the subject of Christian evidence that was so enter- 
 taining, so instructive, and so satisfactory as this book. It is the offspring, 
 of a vigorous intellect, and it is a most valuable addition to religious cul- 
 ture. 
 
 From the Christian Recorder, Philadelphia. 
 
 So charmed are we with this magnificent production of Dr. Burr's, thai 
 really we scarce know where to begin its pTuise. Its excellence is uniforw 
 
Lecture first and lecture eighth equally demand admiration. So every pari 
 of each lecture. The chain of gold is not only complete, but every link is 
 complete. The Colonnade is not only symmetrical, but its minute carv* 
 Ings are perfect. To quote from it to our own satisfaction, would be to 
 quote the whole book, but we remember that Messrs. Nichols & Noyes, the 
 publishers, have a copyright. 
 
 How majestically does the author of Ecce Ccelum send forth his 
 thoughts into the world ! In majesty do they stride forth either to con- 
 quer, to convince, or to woo. Now as a mailed warrior are they seen, fully 
 panopled from head to foot, and crushing by the strength ol his argu- 
 ments every foe— crushing every atheistic shield, and helmet, and breast- 
 plate. On almost every page of Pater Mundi, these all-crushing arguments 
 are to be met— on almost every page we see victims lying mangled and 
 bleeding. 
 
 We do not know that the author of Pater Mundi lays claim to the po- 
 etic gift ; and yet has he given us a sublime Didactic Poem. Not in verse, 
 is it given; it is neither Dactylic, AnapjEstic, Iambic, nor Trochaic. 
 But poetic imagination shines on every page. Untrammeled by rule, 
 and enjoying a freedom that the utmost poetic license could not allow, 
 the author has given us a poem infinitely sublimer than could possibly 
 have been done in any other form. Would that we could give our read- 
 ers the concluding pages of Lecture VII. Such poetic thought! Such 
 beauty of expression! Such smoothness! Such harmony! Words an- 
 swer to words, and sentence to sentence, with such sweetness that one 
 glides along to the conclusion, as smoothly as a New England sleigh, and 
 as merrily as its ringing bells. 
 
 From the Norwich Bulletin, 
 
 It will be a great advantage to the reader of this work to have made the 
 acquaintance of Dr. Burr's previous volume, "Ecce Ccelum," as thus many 
 of the references in "Pater Mundi" will be the more intelligible and vivid. 
 The quality of the new work is in all respects admirable. Dr. Burr ha* 
 a wonderful enthusiasm, always fresh and intense. He is full of his sub- 
 ject. He has the faculty of so treating profound and sublime themes, as 
 to bring them easily to the comprehension of all. He has a fervid style, 
 whose richness seems inexhaustible. He has great fertHity in argument, 
 and presents his suggestions with rare simplicity and force. The volume 
 will go far to combat the sophistries of Atheism, both in uncultured minds 
 and in those of strong logical powers. We cannot too highly commend 
 it, and we predict that it will find a place in every well stocked religious 
 library. 
 
 From the Standard, Chicago, 111. 
 li any one should infer from the title of this book that it is a heavy and 
 pTosy aissertation, he would be Sf^tonished on looking over its pages 
 
Nothing could be flirther from the truth. The author is an enthusiast, one 
 of those who have not "discovered that one must be indifferent in ord(?r ta 
 be fair." The book is fresh, earnest, and eloquent, and we felt its strong 
 spell before reading a dozen pages. The statement of arguments is admira- 
 bly clear, the development of them is natural and impressive, and there i8 
 displayed a wonderful power in massing facts so as to give their full and 
 combined effect. 
 
 From the Chicago Tribune. 
 
 This work in some respects is very remarkable. It is not only compact 
 In argument, and forcible and clear in statement, but it is also absolutely 
 brilliant and sparkling in manner, and rich and copious in illustration. 
 Judging only from the one volume before us, we should pronounce it a« 
 one of ihe most remarkable and fascinating books of the day. 
 From the Orleans Fepublican, Albion, iV. Y. 
 
 The author's premises are bold, and his line of argument clear, forcible 
 and persuasive; shirking nothing, anticipating, and answering objec- 
 tions with equal fairness. The work is calm, liberal, and large thoughted; 
 full of admirable logic, and profound reasoning ; and the last three lec- 
 tures, especially, are grand with beautiful and terrible imagery, exquisite 
 poetry, and striking allusions to those mysterious facts and forces of na- 
 ture which startle and awe believer and unbeliever alike ; and his conclu- 
 sion is singularly suggestive and powerful. 
 
 From Rev. Austin Phelps, D.D., Professor in Andover Theological 
 
 Seminary. 
 
 I wish to thank the author for " Pater Mundi." Not that it needs any 
 commendation from me : but I cannot but be grateful to any man who helps 
 me to a new depth or vividness of conception of God; and this you have 
 done by your book. I am specially impressed by the power with which it 
 draws the great alternative, — a God benevolent, or a God malignant. The 
 reductio ad absurdum is fearfully overwhelming; and the recoil with which 
 one springs back from it gives one a lodgment and a resting-place in the 
 Infinite Love which no gentler discipline could secure so well. This vigor 
 of religious sensibility in your works charms me. We need it greatly in our 
 Christian litcraturQ, to supplement alike the wiry intellect of which we have 
 enough, and the emotive softness of which, perhaps, we have a little more. 
 From the American Baptist. 
 
 The author has a strong and vigorous style, and a power of gra.«ping 
 and grouping great truths, which make all that he utters luminous and 
 convincing. Though prepared specially for educated men, they are adapt- 
 ed to all readers, have no abstruseness of diction, no intricate, far-fetched 
 or dubious arguments. The author will impart no small measure of the 
 Indignation he feels towards atheism, concealing itself under the name o\ 
 ecience, to those who read his book, and we trust it may have a very wide 
 circulation. 
 
From The New Englander. 
 
 The author of Ecce Coeluni could not well be expected to write a rtuli 
 book on any subject, much less one in which God and nature were the 
 chief topic. But whether he would be able to clothe a skeleton of 
 a two-volume argument for Thei»m — often so dry and grim in otlier 
 hands — with the flesh and muscle, the life and beauty, that charm us in 
 Parish Astronomj^ could only be shown conclusively by the production of 
 a work like that before us. Pater Mundi, will, by the glow and magnet- 
 ism of its rhetoric, and the enthusiastic earnestness of its tone, as well as 
 the strength of its argument, be sure to command everywhere, appri'cia- 
 tife and admiring readers, and prove, we trust, of special value to those who 
 are inclined to regard science as hostile to religion. Its logic is vitalized 
 and made effective by the force and richness of the illustrations drawn 
 from the various fields of science. It is these all glowing often with poetic 
 fervor, that rivet the attention at once, and carry the reader on insensibly 
 from topic to topic. In some of the lectures, indeed, the argument as- 
 sumes the elevation and almost the form of a grand poem. The sixth, for 
 example, like a sublime ode, returns, strophe by strophe, with each point 
 made in the argument, to the same exultant chorus, which becomes at 
 once a quod erat deuionstrandunt to the understanding, and an inspi- 
 ration of faith to the heart. 
 
 The second volume promises to be even more attractive than the first ; for it 
 is to be still more replete with the marvels and sublimities of the sciences 
 as illustrative of the argument. It is too much forgotten by many that God 
 may be studied in flower and forest, in storm and star, and in the soul of 
 man, as well as in Moses and the prophets. The glowing pages of " Pater 
 Mundi," teach impressively that the God of Kevelation is the God of 
 Nature as well. 
 
 Front the Methodist, 
 
 Th° many gratified readers of" Ecce Coelum." will welcome this new 
 and important work of Dr. Burr. It is a book for the times. Natural 
 Theology can no longer retain its old form : the progress, not only of Sci- 
 ence but of speculative thought, demands a thorough revision, ''Pater 
 Mundi" meets this demand with masterly ability. 
 
 Front the American Presbyterian Hevietv, 
 
 A new work by the author of" Ecce Ccelum " is sure to attract unusual 
 attention; nor will expectation be disappointed. Dr. Burr is an original 
 and independent thinker, and he writes in a style of singular freshness 
 and rhetorical beauty. His book is timely. Though popular in its ad- 
 dress, it sacrifices nothing to efiect, and is wholly free from that superfi- 
 cialty which is usually found in the attempt to reduce the conclusions of 
 science to the level of a popular audiance. It discusses with masterly abil- 
 ity the testimonies of Modern Science to the being of a God, and defends 
 Theism from the attacks of sk^tical scieEce in a bold and critical spirit 
 
w^orthy of all praise. It is as profoundly religious as it is thoroughly sci- 
 entific. While it freely accepts the results of the freest investigations it ably 
 argues that there is nothing in one of these to shake the christian's faith, 
 but much to confirm it. The work cannot fail to havo an important influ- 
 ence on Natural Theology— bringing it into harmony with the progress of 
 Science and speculative philosophy, and arming it Avith a new power of 
 demonstration. 
 
 From the I*rinceton Mevietv. 
 
 Dr. But, known to us in his youth as a modest and studious lad, and 
 since, as the faithful and unpretending pa>tor of a rural congregation, has 
 ■ sudden'y burst on our vision as an author of the first mark in the highest 
 realms of thought, and as a leading defender of precious truth against the 
 assaults of scientific pretenders and pretentious sciolists. He calls to mind 
 the days when the great New England divines, the Edwardses, Bellamy, 
 Backus, Smalley, Emmons, were pastors of agricultural congregations. 
 
 The universal approbation of Pater Muudi and the previous volume, by 
 the press and by christian thinkers of the highest reputation, we find 
 borne out by actual inspection. Real science is proved to be the hand- 
 maid of true religion, in a series of discussions which evince a masterly 
 comprehension of the issues involved— a thorough acquaintance with 
 modern science and its relations to religion— the whole in a style clear 
 and simple, vivid and graphic. We think the quiet of a country charge 
 more propitious to thorough study and deep thinking, than the din and 
 whirl of metropolitan excitements. 
 
 From Prof. 2>. C. Gilmnn, Tale Coller/e. 
 
 I feel moved to express my hearty appreciation of the service the author 
 of" Pater Mundi " is rendering to the world by the publication of these 
 earnest, brilliant and impressive discourses. 
 
 From Hon. Menri/ Zi, 'Daivfn, M, C. 
 
 The pleasure with which I read aloud to my family " Ecce Coelum" has 
 prepared me for an increased delight and profit in reading " Pater Mundi. " 
 I am very proud of the author, and rejoice in his growing fame. 
 From Our 3Ionthl)j, Cincinnati, Ohio, 
 
 We are veiy glad to welcome and commend this book. The author does, 
 with singular ability, what he proposes to do. His trumpet utters no un- 
 certain sound. There is no danger of any one mistaking his moaning. 
 We think it high time the arrogant assumptions and speculations of some 
 scientific rac q in the interest of infidelity and atheism were exposed, and 
 the harmony of all true science and revelation vindicated, made more ap- 
 parent, and presented in some popular form. This Dr. Burr is doing, and 
 the first installment of his work we have in this sories of lectures. Tliat 
 tboy vnll be found interesting and convincing we need not say to thosa 
 who have read ' Ecce Coelum."