Intervention of Deity. 459 The fact that all sciences, specially that which concerns the Dissipation of Energy, points to a beginning, to a state of things incapable of being derived by means of any existing laws from any conceivable previous arrangement,1 is proof of physical intervention; therefore, that which is unwarrantably declared "à priori improbable," becomes a matter of actual science: there have been physical interventions, or all our knowledge is at fault. Those who deny this imagine that their own dull element is all, and that no deep sea echoes round the world. Take outside things, either as materials for the scaffold of our argument, or, using them as a sort of algebraic symbol, submit them to the necessary operations for ascertaining the unknown quantity-whether of Divinity or miracle: thus proceed : The agency of light is wave-movement, but the moving agent we know not; the mode of operation by chemical affinity is known, chemical affinity is not known; the laws of motion seem to be laws of heat, but we do not know what is moving nor how it moves; 2 thus our conviction of the existence of the unknown is verified by experience. Now advance somewhat further-Do we know all Nature's combinations? Certainly not: many, indeed all operations are wrought by means of a complexity so extreme as to present an almost insuperable obstacle to our investigations. It is impossible, therefore, to have any evidence which can be accounted sufficient to enable a scientific thinker to conclude that miracles are, à priori, improbable. Try another mode of investigation. Human consciousness is brought into connection with material things by means of nervous tremors―a neural process; it is easy to conceive of a succession of sentiments, of consciousness eternally prolonged; indeed, our recollections are not limited to the present-they embrace the past, and our expectations take hold of the future. There is organic union throughout our thoughts are not separate beads, but as a necklace; and the string is "organic union "-so we continue 1 "Recent Advances in Physical Science," p. 26: Prof. P. G. Tait. to be ourselves. If we say the Mind is a series of feelings, we are obliged to complete the statement by calling it a series of feelings which is aware of itself as past and future. Thus we are brought to the alternative of saying-the Mind is something different from any series of feelings, or that a mere series of feelings can be aware of itself, as a series, which is absurd. In all this, philosophers who have most carefully studied decide, "there is no need of substance, except as the support and bond of phenomena;"1 the ego, our own mind, is the real existence. As we proceed in investigation, the lines become finer and finer, are concerned with new unimaginable elements though the process is thinkable, and we are conscious that go far as we may an untried universe lies beyond; a region of Our consciousness of existence may be thought of as pages of algebraic figures which the scientific student reads off into conception of the facts which reveal the splendour and variety of light with untold gradation of blended colours; or as notes written on the mental tablet, which a musician stirs into sweetest and complex harmony. Thus, arguing on scientific principles, we have, by means of our sensations, an actual revelation, direct or indirect, in signs and symbols to our thoughts, concerning things material and immaterial; and the laws of thought are laws of our organism. Scientific truths, like spiritual, are waves of the universal flow of existence. Hence, concretes and their abstractions are as the convex and concave of things, the outer and inner meaning, body and soul, the matter and meaning of the stony leaves of history. All modes and grades of knowledge are only dif ferentiations; therefore, our intelligent consciousness, our reasoned faith as to the unknown, our convictions and experiences as to fine lines of intelligence and emotion extending beyond the world's material surface, claim a place within the domain of human intellect. Not only is Revelation to be found in Holy Scripture, there is a revelation to our consciousEnglish Psychology," p. 119: Th. Ribot. 1 ness concerning the Almighty's operations. It binds the natural and supernatural into one splendid unity. It is the bond of continuity in all existence, correlates the mind of man with the body, and, in its concentrated view and comprehension of Nature, is a symbol of the complexity and mystery of the universe. Further: It is demonstrably certain, if Materialism is true, that we cannot take a step physically or mentally, religiously or morally, but in the way and according to the thoughts of the millions who have gone before us. It is not given to any man, however endowed, to rise spontaneously or quickly into intellectual splendour; there is no break, no solution of continuity. At any and every given moment of our history, knowledge has limits which it cannot pass, and every one of us is weak, standing alone. As if to disprove this mechanical theory, an unknown law intervenes. Not only the thought and work of other men converge in us, the long travail of past centuries-the patience, experience, emotion of all former ages, make us what we are. This rule or empire of the dead is a great and increasing empire; not a small and measurable thing, the interpretations are illimitable; a reservoir of experience for all the living. That is not the whole: a choice few receive unwonted special gifts of which ancestry affords no explanation. Hence, we fairly argue, the human mind is not a gloomy cave, or winding passage leading no whither, dimly lighted with the flame of departed intellects, and filled with the ghosts of dead men's thoughts, but a vessel well prepared, which, receiving rich stores from the past, carries forward the whole man towards perfect truth and supreme good. Such a revelation from ancient source, to every living man, disposes for ever of that huckstering traffic which would measure the exercise of thought, the flight of fancy, the brilliancy of creative genius, and sell it by weight over the counter of physical experiment. The psychical laws of it are real, true, and further reaching than the physical; their effects may be likened to thrills of the earth seen and measured in a magnetic mirror. There is a revelation of things to our mental centre, and an interpretation played with exquisite variety on the chords of our emotion: emotion, which makes successive ages spectators, and the great souls of all periods contemporary. Enlarge the fact. Energy and brilliancy of thought not being of unvarying quantitative or qualitative stability in an individual, a race, or a period, we are not surprised by appearances, when and where least expected, of great and sudden splendour. The progress not being uniform, but intermittent; at times gathering strength in the clearness consequent upon repose, or some thinker of exceptional power by mighty and sudden wrestling thrusts aside barriers, and wins a wider circle in which thought entrenches itself, thence to go forth with new strength once more to conquer. For example, enormous distance comes between the experience of Pythagoras and the scientific computations of Newton, between common minds and the genius of Shakespeare, between profane persons and men of piety. Throes arise out of the long travail of centuries, from the trouble and struggle of a million workers, and, by passionate exercise concentrating much light and power, turn commonplaces of effort into miracle-scenes of a wonderful life. This accounts for Moses, the son of a slave, delivering a nation of slaves-rendering them free men; and giving laws which evermore preserved them as a pure race and a peculiar people. This shows how holy Apostles, not having movement and tone from their age, received world-enlightening thought from Jesus Christ. Timid souls, alarmed at the complicate nature and vast extent of inquiry, exclaim-"Let us leave one another alone; keep to your own province, do not enter ours; let there be peace between us." This will never do: the pact can be observed only so long as neither party is quite in earnest. By no treaty can the domain of truth be divided. No bargaining, nor fencing off, nor any form of process, will maintain artificial barriers against inquiry, or bar the right of way: blessed right, enforced by rightful power. The natural world and spiritual world, the intellectual and the emotional, cannot Work of the Clergy. 463 be separated in any such fashion. That fatal objection-"It is not true," will cast down any system. Truth will not admit nor allow a lie. Every truth, whether physical or psychical, is connected with all other truth. Science, therefore, must be allowed, without suspicion or hindrance, to pursue her own proper work. The Church will certainly, despite all hindrance, do hers; nor is it limited to purely spiritual consolation, to academic speculation, or mere philosophy; her work is of a very practical nature—to make men honest, true, and pure; you cannot cause it to cease from the pulpit, nor from the hearth, nor from the printing press, it will win and replenish the earth. The clergy, well aware of this, count it their special office to teach from the pulpit and exhort in the house concerning the great facts-Redemption, Sanctification, Everlasting Life. Not the precise antiquity of the human race-not the exact line separating allegory from history in Scripture-not the interval between miraculous operation and natural cause— not the reconciliation of the Supernatural with ordinary law -are to be greatly enforced on the Holy Day; though it were well for fit men to show what a good and holy thing is Physical Science. Most of them, and rightly, will enforce simple Bible Truth: that every man, as he lives and when he dies, may use Professor Henslow's prayer-"Washed in the Blood of the Lamb: enable me to submit to Thy Holy Will: sanctify me with Thy Spirit." Faith and Prayer of this sort will exist despite scientific difficulties, and outlive them for God fulfils Himself in many ways, and more is wrought by faith and prayer than the world dreams of. Truths, that seem simplest, are deepest; and in guiding those who have gone astray, helping the tempted, consoling the troubled, our clergy tell us what God has done, what Christ has done, what the Holy Spirit has done, and these truths breathe in the thoughts, burn in the words, are the power of God to the soul. This teaching, throwing light into many dark places of the Bible, shows that the face which answered to our face in childhood, becomes, as we grow, a reflection of manhood in Christ: an unseen intelligence becoming visible. This en |