3. Another aspect of the supernatural is the miracle. have seen that the universe as a whole and in each part thereof is a manifestation of the supernatural. We see that law pervades the realms of matter and of mind, that everywhere it is dominant, but there must have been a time when it did not exist unless we accept the atheistic hypothesis that the world is without a beginning. Mr. Darwin admitted the creation of a few original types from which all the rest are descended. If we are not willing to concede as much as he did, but claim that all was potential in "the world stuff," we are bound to account both for the stuff and the potentiality. We are shut up to one of three hypotheses, the "nebulous mass" and its laws were the result of chance; they eternally existed; or they are the product of Deity. If we accept the last hypothesis, and admit that God created the "mass," we affirm the miracle. If we admit that He made the laws by which the mass was governed we affirm the miracle. If we admit that He was the source of the potentialities or had anything to do with them in the way of directing them toward an end, we affirm the miracle. If miracle has ever been wrought in the history of the universe, it is not unreasonable to affirm that it has been wrought more than once. Shall we assert the freedom of the human will and our free use of means to accomplish our ends, and deny free volition to God and the free use of means to effect his ends? Shall we make Him the servant of his own laws? If so, He has made something greater than Himself, which may well be the supreme object of our worship. Shall we say of the laws of nature as the ancients said of fate, it is stronger than Jove? Has God in law tied up his own hands? Must He work exclusively through a certain set of laws? Why must He? It has been said that it is morally impossible for God to violate a law of His own making. We object to the word "violate" as applied to the miracle. We object to Mr. Fiske associating the miraculous with "disorder" and "caprice" and "diabolism." 28 The miracle is simply the overcoming of a lower law by a higher. We are doing this constantly. When Idea of God. p. 108.

28

we drive a nail, drill a piece of iron, open a rock with gunpowder or dynamite, move a locomotive with steam, we work a miracle in the sense of overcoming the lower by a higher. To say that God has not done something akin to this in his creative, sustaining and providential work is presumptuous. If there is a reason why the miracle should be wrought, if the end in view justifies it, then we can easily believe that it has been wrought.

Evolution has discovered the law by which the different species, vegetable and animal, have become what they are. It cannot say how that law originated. It cannot say that it has not been reinforced and shaped through the ages by the interposition of the divine power. It cannot say that since the goal was reached, the creation of man and the fixity of the other species, God has not wrought the miracle to effect certain moral and spiritual results with His moral and spiritual children.

As Mr. Huxley has said, on a priori grounds there is no objection to miracles, to the Christian miracles. Whether they were actually wrought must be determined largely by a posteriori consideration, mainly evidence internal and historical.

VI. Evolution does not discredit the transce ndence of God. We hear much from evolutionists and others of the divine immanence in nature and in man. This is well. No part of

the universe is godless. He is the soul of all.

"Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars and blossoms in the trees.

Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent."

But this does not preclude His being greater than nature, than creation, and outside of them. As we cannot think of a limited space so we cannot think of a limited God. He must extend beyond his creation. God is not outside of the world from whence He governs it by laws and forces, but He is inside of the world and in its laws and forces. But this is not all. He is not confined to the world nor to its laws and forces. He is infinite, transcends the universe, matter, law, force, human spirit.

"Theism is no way committed to the doctrine of a God external to the world," says Dr. Martineau, "but it is at liberty to regard all the cosmical forces as varieties of method assumed by his conscious causality, and the whole of nature as the evolution of His will." "Why a supra-mundane Disposer should be obliged, in order to carry out his purposes, to absent himself from the scene and succession which he orders, and stand outside, is altogether unintelligible" 29. God has been present in every part of His creation from the beginning, "is now and ever shall be," but He has not been confined to His creation. He is in all, through all, over all, transcends all.

Evolution leaves religion essentially where it found it. It has furnished no evidence against the existence of God, against His being the Great Architect of the Universe, against supernaturalism, against the divine transcendence. It does not antagonize Christian theology. It cannot show that God is not the Father of the spirits of all flesh, that He does not love His children. It recognizes the depravity and sinfulness of man in asserting that he has not outgrown the inheritance he received from his brutal ancestors, and his consequent need of a Saviour. It admits that the religion of Jesus is adapted to man's need and its universal belief and practice would result in his moral perfection-the goal to which it assures us we as a race are tending. Evolutionists are recognizing more and more the theological truths which are the growth of the ages, the common sense conclusions of mankind, and they are studying how they can bring their philosophy into harmony with these truths.

On the other hand theologians, discerning a fact basis in the theory of evolution, are trying to make their doctrines accord with it. Theology was not permanently disturbed by the displacements of the Ptolomaic astronomy by the Copernican. Nor will it be by evolution, which, as Prof. Le Conte says, is the law of the divine working in time as gravitation is the law of his working in space.3 James Eastwood.

30

29 Study of Religion 1. pp. 328-329.

30 Evolution and Religious Thought, p. 264.

ARTICLE XXXI.

The Spiritual Origin of Force.

THE existence of force is a fact given us in consciousness. We are conscious of exerting force in all our voluntary actions. The existence of force is also given us in all our sensations, as their universal and permanent condition. This is evident from the revelations of modern physiological psychology. It is the active cause that underlies all known phenomena, and therefore constitutes the basis of all science and philosophy. But what is the origin of force? From what source do we derive it? Is its great fountain in matter or spirit? Is it material or spiritual in its origin?

It is evident from man's consciousness and experience, as well as from the teaching of philosophy, that force is spiritual in its origin. We are conscious of it as the result of an act of will. It is first known in volition. In the light of the conscious experience of volition, we interpret the manifestation of force in nature. This is the conclusion of modern science. It gives us the experimental basis of the doctrine of causation. This conclusion is fatal to the claims of modern materialism. It is in harmony with the doctrine of spiritual freedom and responsibility.

M. Comte admits the spiritual origin of force. He says:

"If we insist upon penetration of the insoluble mystery of the essential cause of phenomena, there is no hypothesis more satisfactory than that they proceed from wills dwelling in them or outside of them; an hypothesis which assimilates them to effects produced by the desires which exist within ourselves. The order of nature is doubtless very imperfect in every respect, but its production is far more compatible with the hypothesis of an intelligent will, than with blind mechanism."

Mr. Spencer admits the similarity of will force and natural force. He says:

"In lifting a chair, the force exerted we regard as equal to

1L' Ensemble du Positivisine. p. 46.

that antagonistic force called the weight of the chair; and we cannot think of these as equal without thinking of them as alike in kind, since equality is conceivable only between things that are co-natural. The axiom that action and re-action are equal and in opposite directions, commonly exemplified by the very instance of muscular force versus weight cannot be mentally realized on any other condition.'

Prof. B. P. Bowne says:

2

"Science refers all change to one universal force. What is force? It is either the activity of a person, the determination of a will, or nothing. If external causation is to be affirmed on the warrant of internal causation, the external must be often the parent of the internal."3

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Metaphysical philosophy reveals force as a fact of mind and therefore spiritual. Consciousness reveals force to us as one form of our mental activity. Matter can be described only in terms of force, and can be thought of only as a function of force; and force is capable of being conceived of only as spiritual." 4

This profound metaphysical and scientific writer finds our first knowledge of force to be derived from a consciousness of the action of our own wills, and in the light of this experience he holds we interpret physical phenomena.

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Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws."5 An agent is a person endowed with intelligence and will. The action of an agent which in the judgment of this able scientist is the cause of gravitation, is the action of a spiritual cause."

"Causation is the will, creation is the act of God." This able expounder of the scientific doctrine of the unity and persistence of force traces it to the will of God. This brings the Bible and science into harmony.

2 First Principles. 1. p. 58.

8 Philosophy of Herbert Spencer. 1. pp. 12, 13.

4 The Scientific Basis of Faith. By J. J. Murphy. pp. 46, 47.

5 Playfair's Dissertation on The Progress of Mathematics and Physical SciP. 57.

ences.

Grove's Correlation of Physical Forces. Youman's Edition. p. 199.