the whisper of our spirit reaches His spirit in a moment. Praise, prayer, love, submission to the dictates of conscience, and all other foundations of true character, belong to the spirit world. God himself is spirit, invisible, impalpable, infinite, eternal, the fountain of all force and goodness. The word "spirit" in most languages is only an illustration drawn either from the movement of the air or wind which are the simplest signs of an unseen force, or from the act of breathing, which is the simplest expression of feeling. What is the bond of union between these two worlds? It is the human personality, that which is conscious, thinks, feels, strives, and which takes in and gives out energy in two directions, above and below. It floats like a cork on the water; its lower surface in relation to the material world, its upper in relation to the pure air of heaven. Owing to the poverty of human language the word yuxń, or soul, has to do duty both for this mysterious personality, and also for its capacity for dealing with things earthly through the agency of brain, nerve and sense, a capacity which we treat now under the words psychology and physiology. But there are (in some persons lying dormant and in others in full activity) energies and inspirations which draw out ourselves, souls, minds and activities in the direction of the spirit world, which is described as "that which is above," as contrasted with that which is of the earth. The order of human nature seems to be first the physical, cosmic or psychical, then the spiritual or hyper-cosmic; and the nomenclature of the first has to do duty by way of illustration to the second. Which of the two is final, permanent and supreme? Can there be any doubt? We appreciate physical excellence, but we pine for moral perfection, and above all-in our best moments-for union with the Author of our existence. The physical, which practically means psychical, is the scaffolding, but moral and spiritual character is the real building, with a view to which the scaffolding is erected. Scaffolding is costly; it takes a long time to prepare ; it is all arranged for a definite purpose; and when that purpose is attained it is taken down, though marks and indications of it may sometimes be detected on the surface of the completed structure. The things of time and space are not useless; they supply working models and types, but after all the things which are seen are temporary, the things which are not seen are permanent. It is believed that the embryos of all animals (and plants?) pass in a few days or weeks through stages corresponding with the whole presumed course of ancestral evolution, and this is supposed to have needed millions of years. I sometimes wonder whether all these millions were really necessary for the production, say, of the first man. I also wonder whether shorter stages of existence between an ovum and an infant could be devised by a professor of embryology which should be simpler and should have no reference to the supposed line of ancestry from an amoeba. At any rate, the physical universe has been built up in slow stages, and while pronounced very good it may be regarded as incomplete at present, but it is making its way towards completeness. We should all accept some such scheme as is thus indicated if all went well with the human race; but it does not. Evil mars the divine handiwork and frustrates the divine purpose. It is simply appalling in character and extent. We have not only to face hardship-that might be good for character-but we find ourselves a prey to godlessness, selfishness, lust, cruelty, and a thousand other vices, all branches of one tree which the Bible characterises as sin, i.e., failure or a missing of the mark. We did not personally invent this evil thing. The tendency or proneness to it is an inheritance, and we trace it back to an early catastrophe described clearly in Gen. iii in language which every child can understand. Let us not spend much time in wondering who the enemy was who sowed tares in the divine field, but rather let us ask whether the Being who brought all things into existence has recognised the failure of His plan, and has taken any steps to bring order out of disorder, to restore the lost, to liberate the captive, and to renew man's adoring love for his Creator. With this end it would be vain to look to such ethical and social teachers as Buddha and Confucius, to such an analyst as Aristotle, or to such an idealist as Plato. We find ourselves compelled to look to the smallest of all lands, Canaan, and to the most stubborn of all peoples-Israel. We have to study their sacred books which are so candid and yet so hopeful, and then to concentrate our attention on one Being. His character, His teaching, and His beneficent labours do more to give us an idea of God than we can get in any other way. But His public and unmerited death, when only thirty-three, is a shock to our moral sense, until we learn that it was submitted to-tasted— for a reason, and was immediately followed by a risen and glorified life, which has brought light, life, and hope to the door of every human heart. Now, no religion commends itself to our reason and conscience which does not deal victoriously with evil. We could not dictate time or means, but we ought to be able to recognize the Conqueror if He came, and to appreciate His work when it is finished. Only God could send Him, or shall I say, lend Him, and appoint the programme. The Christian believes and knows that God gives us the victory over evil through Jesus Christ. It is true, we do not yet see all things put under His feet. Quite the contrary But we see a beginning made in the life, death and resurrection of Christ? We see that He is practically now saving men, helping them by the gift of His Spirit to live a pure unselfish life, bringing them to God, to self-respect, to hope. Thus we have got a scientific test of the mission of Christ.* We have a glimpse of the purpose of God in a reclaimed human race. We have a prospect not of no heaven and earth, but of a new heaven and earth. A spiritual Kingdom is already set up amidst physical and debased surroundings. The senses tell us of these, but the God-sent Spirit gives us a share in the other. Time and space, history, Providence, prayer, praise, conflict, suffering, are all turned to account. Spiritual stones are being fashioned for a spiritual Temple, and the problem of the universe is, to the Christian, an open secret. It is described by those who ought to know as "the bringing of many sons unto glory" (Heb. ii, 10), or in other words, their being conformed to the mind and character of Christ, "that He might be the first born among many brethren " (Rom. viii, 29). We thus arrive at the following conclusions: (1) Judging the unknown by the (comparatively) known, we have every reason to believe that the Universe is One. (2) Interpreting the elaborate mechanism of Nature by * The appeal to Conversion as a proof of the mission of Christ is an ancient one. Thus Origen (born c. A.D. 180) writes, "The whole habitable world contains evidence of the works of Jesus in the existence. of these Churches of God which have been founded through Him by those who have been converted from the practice of innumerable sins. The name of Jesus can still remove distractions from the minds of men, and expel demons, and also take away diseases, and produce a marvellous meekness of spirit and complete change of character and a humanity and goodness and gentleness in those who do not feign themselves to be Christians for the sake of subsistence or the supply of any mortal wants, but who have heartily accepted the doctrine concerning God and Christ and the Judgment to come." (Origen, 29, and Celsus, 1, 67.) the analogy of human products, the Universe, though apparently working automatically, has intelligent Force and Purpose behind it. (3) The alternative view-that nature is the result of Chance and has no Mind at the back of it-is untrue to the dictates of human intelligence and deprives us of the possibility of adoring a Being higher than ourselves. (4) If the gulf between a human inventor and his work is vast, no human being can expect to grasp the height and depth of the Divine Author of the Universe which includes man himself. Yet we find ourselves driven to search for Him. (5) The problem is more severe because while we have (6) Help has come both for the relief of the speculative DISCUSSION. The CHAIRMAN said: I am sure we are all very grateful indeed to the Canon for his very thoughtful paper. I will not attempt to say very much myself about it, but it appears to me that we may regard the Almighty Being from whom everything else proceeded as the summary of all the necessary truths and laws of existence, physical and moral. These laws are necessary. We cannot possibly imagine that this self-existent summary and origin of law is unconscious. If we do so, then we have the terrible alternative of the production of everything by blind chance. There is, therefore, this omnipotent, omnipresent Being. We must think of Him as having a desire to cause a reflex of Himself so as to be surrounded by beings capable of acknowledging and appreciating Him, but differing from Himself individually. His thought was reflected in the ether or ions. Then began the elementary processes of chemical affinity. The fact that the results of these processes were orderly and progressive, shows that they were not the result of chance, but of plan and law. Here we are confronted of course with the very prominent effects of failure and imperfection in the progress of development. It appears that the Almighty mind would not force perfection, else all would have been perfect but uninteresting. The atoms were allowed to arrange themselves according to laws, principles and ideals-but with freedom and without compulsion. This led to an endless and invaluable variety. This was finally the case with man, no compulsion, but a large amount of freedom, and the result of the conflict of good and evil demonstrates every day of our lives the persistent tendency of good to prevail. We see the grand processes of the universe going on at the present moment. There are the vast nebulæ and the clouds of cosmic dust. When some burning star blazes forth it seems to be a world which has come to an end. We recognize that there is much that is mysterious and many difficulties that we can never solve, but there is enough to convince us of a loving and almighty Mind in which we can put our trust. Mr. HOWARD said: It is most important in considering this valuable paper to note the absolute necessity which there appears to be in the human mind to acknowledge a guiding force in nature. The habit of the human mind of trying to grasp the whole, to rise from the particular to the general is inherent, and there seems no escape from the necessity of viewing the Universe as a whole and governed by intelligence or at least by law. It is quite true that you may go no further than the philosophers who spoke of v rather than of Tò πâv, but the idea of unity you must have. Now some have thought that evolution might explain creation without a Creator, but we find laws of evolution recognised by the very people who would escape from the idea of first cause. What is a law without a law-giver? And if it is anthropomorphism to speak of an intelligent law-giver is it less so to speak of laws at all? Our whole conception of law is human. And why should we M |