the exploration of such a field of knowledge. The proposition of Herbert Spencer that so shocked the religious world is not only true, but demonstrably true: "Apprehensible to us there is no God." Spencer built his system of agnosticism upon the logical powers. Men of lesser brain persist in building Christianity on the same basis; so that we still have rationalists and some higher critics worshiping a conclusion of a syllogism or a solitary proposition for a personal God. The God of the Bible is not in the range of pure reason. Had man no other powers than the logical, no other method than logical inference, God would forever be unknowable, because not in the field of vision of the natural man. Any attempt to know God by inference involves the fallacy of false assumption.

The mind has no ability to infer the being of God from the facts of the natural world which lie in the realm of sense. The facts of nature may unify a truth already known, or illustrate what is revealed in some other way. The clock method and all similar methods are illustrations, not arguments. The fallacy of all such efforts may be logically exposed. Take the old saw an Arab found the track of a camel near his tent, and hence inferred the existence of the camel; therefore, if the footprints of God do not prove the existence of God, neither do the tracks of the camel prove the existence of the camel. The conclusion being true, many minds assume the premise to be true. But how could the Arab know the track to be a camel's unless he had first known a camel? The footprints were evidence of the presence of the camel, not a discovery of the fact of its existence. The Arab had the fact to begin with and knew the camel's tracks, and hence logically inferred that the camel had been near his tent. That is the only logical value of his inference. Had he only the tracks to work on he could never have found the camel by the syllogism.

illogical, unsatis God must be in

If God be only an hypothesis or a mental proposition, then he may be in the range of reason; but as a personal Being he is not in the range of our logical powers. The God that is presumed to be known by the syllogism is factory, and unknowable, because absurd. the premise if he be found in the conclusion. than a proposition, and hence does not live in the range of the logical powers or any of the powers of the natural man.

But God is more

But does not this contradict the great prince of logicians, who seems to indorse the logical method and hold man responsible for not finding God by his footprints? "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." Why? Because of their logical power to infer God "from the things that are made?" No, but for another reason. God hath showed, manifested, disclosed, revealed it unto them, but not by logical inference. What are "the invisible things" that are made so luminous, so clearly seen from the creation of the world," by which not only the philosopher and critic, but all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, are "without excuse?" Why, his "eternal power and Godhead"—Oɛióτns, not Oɛóτηs; for all the character of God is not revealed in nature, even when nature is interpreted by himself. But they had such a knowledge as to bring all under obligation to worship. How did this knowledge come? Not by inference "from the things that are made," not through the syllogism, but by divine manifestation.

God cannot be put into scientific formula. He is more than power, more than a proposition. When the beloved disciple said "God is love " he did not attempt to put God into a proposition; his predicate was not intended to contain all the subject. God is greater than all his works; neither the book of nature nor the book of revelation is in the range of the logical faculty. "The things of the Spirit of God" must be spiritually examined by Spirit-taught men. Supernatural disclosure is absolutely essential in order to interpret the book of nature or the book of revelation. God, if known, must be spiritually discerned, known by the spiritual faculties, which are alone developed in the Spirit-taught man-by the method of intuition, quickened insight, soul vision, apocalypse. Spontaneous insight seems to have been the normal method of knowing God exercised by the primitive man. Spontaneous perception is the logic of the blessed man. Jesus said to Peter, when he first realized the true character of the Messiah, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed

[dπокáλve] it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven [hath apocalypsed it unto thee]."

Upon this Spirit-taught man Jesus built his Church, or out of such Spirit-taught men he formed his EKKλýola. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Paul exhorts the higher critics on Mars' Hill-Aristotle and all his disciples-to cease trying to put God into the forms of art and crowding him into human syllogisms, and to feel after him [nλañoɛiav] and find him, not by sense or by reason, but by soul vision. The spiritual man can feel more than he can think, realize what he cannot formulate, know what he cannot logically prove, because there is a class of truths which lies beyond the logical powers.

II. THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION TO THE SPIRITUAL POWERS OF MAN.-Spiritual truth is limited to Spirit-taught men. If the animal man is convicted of sin, righteousness, and judg ment it is because the Holy Spirit has done it; then it is a conviction, a spiritual impression, not a logical conclusion. Reason is limited to facts established by evidence and to selfevident truths and such truths as can be logically inferred from them.

The Bible has a literary side, of necessity. Truth is wrapped up in the forms of language, as mathematics in diagrams; but the truth does not depend upon the formula, but the formula does depend upon the truth. The critic, the scholar, the spiritually-minded can get nothing out of the forms of language but what was put in them. The logical powers are limited to history, biography, chronology, archæology, and truths of this class. And yet there is a spiritual element in these also which eludes the mere logical powers. Mind can know nothing by logical inference concerning God, the Trinity, incarnation, immortality, resurrection, and truths of this class, for they lie beyond the logical powers of the natural man and, if known, must be apocalypsed. The teachings of Jesus are not syllogistic; his truths are not inferences from facts; he never proves a proposition; his Gospel is not put together in logical forms. Hence it is absurd to suppose that the Gospel can be taken apart and examined by any logical

process, or be interpreted by the mere critic, as other books are interpreted. The Gospel is a divine formulation of intuited and apocalyptic truths not in the range of the mere logical faculties or the powers of the natural man.

III. THE USE OF REASON IN REVELATION AND RELIGION.It is valuable for the exposition of error. The syllogism is invaluable for finding and exposing fallacies. This is the use Paul makes of his great logical powers. His profound arguments are pure syllogisms that will hold water. But he never tries to prove the Gospel. Paul's success in defeating errorists seems to have led the majority of preachers to adopt the syllogistic method of presenting truth in the pulpit. Jesus presents truth in soul-pictures and never attempts to prove it. Logic is essential to prevent religious enthusiasts and fanatics from perverting the Holy Scriptures. Reason is essential to the complete understanding of the word of God by all rational beings; and all interpretation that can be shown to be false or absurd must be rejected. All religious dreamers and devout seers, the visions of Porphyry, the contemplations of Plotinus, the marvelous illuminations of Swedenborg must be tested by the logical faculty. The highest and best philosophy of any age is that which gives the best solutions to the problems of the soul. Sensationalism and science, falsely so called, have attempted to drive all the angels from the world, deny the supernatural, and shut up God in the laboratory; but philosophy without religion is insufficient for the highest explorations of mind. Some of the higher critics need a kind of intellectual palingenesis, as well as "Ye must be born again."

The earnest soul is weary of the worship of definitions, hypotheses, forces, principles, and conclusions of syllogisms. The best thinkers of the age are crying, like David, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God."

ART. IV. THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION OF GOD.

Ir adaptation to human wants were chiefly considered there would be little difficulty in reaching a satisfactory conception of Deity. The Christian notion is exactly suited to the mental and moral needs of the race. Beyond dispute it comes into sympathetic contact with humanity at a larger number of points than any other. The same conclusion is arrived at if the matter is referred to pure reason for a decision. Once allow that theism affords the only proper explanation of the universe as it now exists, and the idea of the divine nature held by the Christian Church is the only thoroughly consistent one. Atheism, naturalistic evolution, pantheism, positivism, and agnosticism are involved in such hopeless difficulties as to drop wholly out of consideration. The alternative is either the God of revelation or utter skepticism.

The Holy Scriptures contain the data upon which the Christian conception is based. They furnish the only authoritative material from which to construct it. Reduced to simplest terms, the view they warrant may be stated in two propositions: I. God's absolute essence is immanent Spirit; II. His moral nature is holy love.

I. Every biblical student has noticed that God is frequently spoken of in both Testaments as a Spirit. He is said to be invisible, unsearchable, omnipresent, and omniscient. These properties are incompatible with material being. To be intelligible they must be connected with an independent, immaterial existence. Spirit thus appears as the fundamental essence in the divine nature. Deity cannot be thought of as confined to a form like a human creature. Such an idea would imply limitation. He is the Unlimited, bound by neither space nor time, and can be everywhere present at the same moment. Of course, it follows that he is unappreciable by the senses. He cannot be seen with eyes or touched with hands. Though he may be near, he must ever elude physical grasp. Job said, "Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not." At the dedication of the temple at Jerusalem Solomon lifted up his eyes and cried, "Will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much