The Conflict involves Highest Interests.

But for those obstinate questionings

Of sense and outward things,

Which, be they what they may,

Are yet the dawning light of better day."

Slightly altered from Wm. Wordsworth.

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For these and other truth-loving men, in danger of being beguiled by the sophisms of imperfect science, this book is written; that, obtaining clearness of knowledge as to Inspiration, and gathering spiritual strength, they may say—

"Wherefore should we be silent, we who know
The trance of adoration, and behold

Upon our bended knees the Throne of Heaven,
And Him who sits thereon?"

No apology is required for detailed statement of scientific facts. They are needful as exhibiting the bases of real argument; but the highest reason for their introduction is that discoveries are themselves revelations of the Divine Presence and Work-a psalmody of Wisdom and Power.

We deal not with controversies amongst believers, but with men who deny supernaturalism, who refuse to believe in a personal God-our Creator, our Preserver, our Father. We undertake a conflict which involves highest interests: nothing less, on the one hand, than everything which can elevate man; and, on the other, degradation to a brutenature. Triflers with unbelief should well understand the ultimate issue, and draw back while there is time. Egyptian, Assyrian, Grecian, Roman experience, evinces that to unfaith men takes from them everything which preserves from evil and leads to good. Without a sense of holiness, of devotion to a Higher Being, degradation ensues. "Deum nôsse, est vivere; Deum nescire, mori." To an open eye the light of God reveals Creation as the miracle of Godhead.

We contend for Revelation in an Inspired Record as the only infallible guide to religious truth; a corrective of unscientific generalisations which would banish God from the world. Physical science is the sister and handmaid of Revelation; no antagonism should exist between them; nor will man lastingly receive a religion that requires antagonism. Science has not yet established perfect accord with Revelation, but is tending thither; and, when attained, the generalisations of science will be assured. Our aim is to promote

that agreement by making it plain that verified science is knowledge exact as possible to finite wisdom; and that scientific truths, like spiritual, have for ever been descending from heaven to men. Who but God could create and possess so vast a treasure?

Materialists, by mistake and misfortune, astonished by unprepared emergence from comparative ignorance of physics to wider information, deny that there is any exact science apart from their own; not knowing that the sublimest achievements of our nature are by spiritual insight. To be great, they must not only use the microscope of observation, but the far-sighted telescope, and the yet further photography of vision. Then they will be aware that Sacred Verities have called forth the highest intellectual powers of human nature. The Greek, the Roman, the Celt, the Teuton, rebelled against the Revelation which God gave to one family of mankind; but the Divine Oracles, because Divine, prevailed the more. We have now greater learning, and higher power of criticism, but the Sacred Documents will endure a far more searching test than any they have yet received. It will again be proved, that men are not happy until pure intelligence finds relief and solution for the perplexities of existence by those acts of beneficence and high morality, which are only intelligible and possible through the conviction of direct relations between God and man; relations which bring into the horizon of earthly existence the lofty proportions of that celestial fane, wherein countless myriads present glorious worship, and serve in splendid. occupation:

"There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st,

But, in his motion, like an angel sings;
Still quiring to the young-eyed Cherubim."

Shakespeare.

Those acquainted with scientific progress are aware that, of late, the more brilliant achievements deal with the unseen. Those who question the ultimate particles of matter, who are occupied with the mysteries of molecular vibration, bear the victory-wreaths of successful discovery. Every atom teems with wonders not less than those of vast and bright far-off

suns.

Connection of all visible things with the invisible, is evidence of a continual going from the unseen to the seen;

The Scripture Criticised.

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evermore an awakening of life from the dead; which render the universe an enchanted valley; and strangely confirms expectation that the forms which matter assumes are not essentials, but accidents. Whether any piece of matter shall take the shape of solid, of liquid, or gas, seems a question of temperature and pressure. Who can tell the fixed and unvarying elemental form of matter? Has it any? Is it energy, or force in loco? The mood of the moment is not always truest and best, but on the advance to that it will so become. The world is full of marvels, and if we regard it as a manifestation of the Divine Being, the mysteries are analogous to those of the written Revelation-vast and wonderful!

A portion of Holy Scripture has been selected for criticism; which, as intimately related to physical science, presents peculiar difficulties with strange facilities for accurate definite examination, whether evidence of a Divine Mind is discernible, and warrants acceptance. There is meaning in the world's work and in our earthly discipline, a supreme good to attain, life worth living-because of Intelligence at the heart of things.

Higher Faith does not begin where knowledge ends; it is rooted in knowledge. No scientific man so much as connects his own branch of truth with the trunk, the ground, the end of every rootlet; and the rootlets, by precise relation through every part, into universal harmony; but his faith, as to the whole, enlarges with knowledge of every part. investigations are made fairly exhaustive, that furthest production of reason may render our conviction of truth more sure. We have taken away every arrow that does not hit

Our

Raoul Pictet has shown that we may hope to bring the molecules of a gas into such close contact that they will form a liquid, by fulfilling certain conditions. The gas must be pure, enormous pressure must be available, and the means of producing intense cold, and of subtracting heat at very low temperatures. Under a pressure of 270 atmospheres, at a temperature of 20° F., oxygen is still a gas; but under the influence of a sudden expansion which lowers the temperature to about 360° F., a liquid is produced, and this state of oxygen gas has a density identical with that of water. Nitrogen has been condensed, expanded, liquefied, in the same manner; hydrogen also. This latter was solidified under influence of the extreme cold produced by expansion. Atmospheric air, when freed from carbonic acid gas and treated in the same way, becomes solid. See an admirable abstract of Pictet's work by Mr. Hartley of King's College.—Popular Science.

the mark; and, though it is not required that the reader acquaint himself with every nook and cranny of our reasoning, it is well to know that equipped theologians gather from science and philosophy accurate and wide interpretations, which connect every particle of matter with the Eternal Energy. They bring the statements of Holy Scripture into particular and comprehensive agreement with the whole. They are prepared to show that discords in Nature tend to harmony of the spheres; and not less do varieties and contrarieties in the written Revelation lead us from the slough of despond into larger and fuller feast of reason— the Joy of our Soul in God. The Revelation made to our mind in science, and to our soul of truth and beauty in phenomena, is forerunner of a higher and spiritual Revelation.

To our Father we say―

"Illi sunt veri fideles Tui qui totam vitam suam ad emendationem disponunt.”—Imitatio Christi.

To our readers we say—“Omnia cunctanti," everything to those who wait: as splendour from galaxies of stars afar off, goes forth in different periods, and arrives at the earth in widely separated intervals; beams of truth travel from the Great Source which, not yet shining in our mind, will surely gladden us. When the grass has withered and the flower faded, when the Scripture Record has a new setting in the light beyond the veil, we shall find some to our glory, some to our shame, that "the Word of God abideth for ever.”

STUDY I.

IS INTELLECT DIVORCED FROM PIETY?

"Christianity did not appear in a barbarous age, nor win acceptance because nations were unintelligent. The Greeks were people of highest natural power in freshest vigour, with radiant intellect pervading the sense of youthful beauty. The Roman is a symbol of the bold and clever leader, with whom to dare is to do. Men of the early Church were of earnest, heavenly minded character-their saintly aspect was itself a revelation.

It has been very confidently asserted "that we have not to reckon with religion, its day is gone by, the best minds of our age have forsaken theology, take no account of it, and this is preparatory to a general abandonment of belief in the Supernatural."

The statement is improbable. All that we know of faith and intelligence assures us that the sum total in the twentieth century will be the offspring of the nineteenth, as the nineteenth is of the eighteenth, and must be—unless special, that is miraculous, illumination be given. It may be taken as certain that whatever change takes place in the symbols by which religious faith is expressed, religion, in all essential respects, will remain unchanged. Summarily to throw away ancient beliefs and institutions, to discard the growth and universal experience of moral discipline, can in no case be the work of an individual intellect, or of one age. There ever has been in the past, and, judging from analogy, there ever will be in the future, a recognition of Deity by the highest and purest intelligences.

Lord Bacon says—“Are we disposed to survey the realm of sacred or inspired theology, we must quit this small vessel of human reason, and put ourselves on board the ship of the Church." It were better not to quit "the small vessel of human reason," but to use intelligence as a