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No more can the character be affected by death. accidental circumstance which affects only the body, and that temporarily. The only vital question that concerns the soul is the relation of its life to the life and laws of God. The idea that one can spend this life in self-gratification to the infinite damage of numberless other fellow-beings-sinning from choice in the face of light, purity, and truth; crushing, cursing, torturing and degrading others; insulting infinite love with its deathless pleadings; mocking the justice of God to his very face; blighting and wrecking his own character, inflicting all the damage upon the moral universe of which his nature is capa ble, and then "jauntily walk away" with perfect indifference, or all of a sudden, with a heart full of the blackness of guilt blossom out into an angel-can never gain philosophic respectability. "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap," is more philosophical than Condillac's view, that transformed sensation is every thing mental, which leads inevitably to sensualism. Along with the fact that all the fundamental doctrines of Christianity are thoroughly philosophical, it is of interest to note, also, that every permanent principle advanced by modern philosophy is in harmony with revelation, and that nothing in opposition has been able to stand. Descartes broke with the past, but in positing his cogito ergo sum he touched the very center of a vital biblical truth. It is with the conscious self, which he could not doubt, that the whole plan of salvation on the human side begins. The principal thing is not simply to think, but to think rightly, for which the philosopher makes no provision, while the system of revealed truth gives complete directions, first for holy living and then for correct thinking. In this thinking selfhood the work of salvation is carried on. Here the kingdom of heaven is set up, and in this domain the witnessing Spirit whispers the voice of God. Descartes also affirms theism as the final warrant for knowledge. From his metaphysics he put out hylozoism, by a final separation of physics and psychology. Spinoza, in his theory of a double-faced substance of thought and extension, has not been able to combine them. His pantheistic idea that such a substance without personality might be called God proved untenable. Pure abstract extension is nothing in particular, which is far from divinity. Besides hav ing two incommensurable attributes in one substance, while

each is supposed to express the essence, it leads to pure thought, which is the absurdity of thought without a thinker. Not even a deus ex machina can work such a system. This would also make error cosmic and be suicidal to reason. The biblical theory of evil is a corner-stone of philosophy. Locke's empirical illustration of the soul as a sheet of white paper, upon which sensation does the writing, under the increasing light of psychology has proven radically defective. The old doctrine holds the field, and philosophy agrees that it is a fountain, while "out of the heart are the issues of life." His argument against innate ideas was irrelevant, and he finally had to admit the freedom of willing. Locke never seemed to think of the question how experience is possible, nor distinguish between experience itself and the ideas developed by experience. The Lockean empiricism, which was so vehemently turned against Christianity both in England and France, could not stand the test.

Berkeley showed the distinction between sensation and ideas in the mind. His theory, that the world, while distinct from mind, exists only in and for the cosmic mind, challenges closest scrutiny from profoundest thinkers. When Hume attempted to construe all thinking upon the atomic hypothesis, he became illogical. His effort to account for ideas which transcend experience is a sorry one. He had to come to the fact that past mental states affect or determine subsequent ones, and this, psychologically, is basal to character. The liberal doctrine is that God is immanent in all material things, affecting them b his volition according to infinite wisdom and freedom. Leib nitz's theory of the monads and their pre-established harmony was constructed against this teaching. But in spite of his laws of the sufficient reason, continuity and identity of the indiscernible, the most subtle, far-reaching, and perfectly graduated system of cosmic interaction and momentary adjustment, is proven to exist. Some marvelous agency is found to pervade all planets and systems, constantly propelling them and keeping up the nicest accuracy in adjusting every atom in the whole to the movements of every other atom. Monadology had to surrender to a free, spiritual, omnipresent personality. The Christian philosopher, Newton, saw more than monads in the falling apple. The old monotheistic doctrine has been adopted as a philosophic principle with an assurance that is inspiring.

The Leibnitzian theory of the will, which reduces it to a mechanical interaction of ideas in mind, divine as well as human, commands no respect. The stronger would crowd out the weaker thoughts, and really leave no place for volition. His system also makes error and evil cosmic, which takes away free agency and leaves no evil at all. By showing that experience itself implies an organizing and free principle in the mind which conditions it, Kant overthrew empiricism and brought the theory of knowledge back to the Christian stand-point. He does much to show the nature and laws of cognition, and to bring to light the marvelous powers of the mind, which reveals the superior dignity conferred upon it by the Creator. The categorical process by which the intellect works over the raw material of phenomena, thus interpreting cosmic substances and relations, shows a marvelous adaptation of mind to the universe, which can be solved upon no other basis than that of infinite wisdom and benevolence in man's creation. A central point is touched by Kant in showing that the reasons for the soul's beginning, and the ground for its continuing, must be sought beyond itself in the "plan or nature of the Infinite." His ontological, cosmological, and physico-theological proofs are direct arguments for the existence of God. In teleology his 66 as if" is as conclusive for the divine as for the human soul.

Our neighbors act "as if " they had intelligence, and so does the cosmos; yet we have no more seen the mental agent in one than in the other. His treatise on evil is decidedly evangelical, making it to consist in the subordination of reason to sense. This inversion, adopted by man as a maxim of action, he makes the root of moral evil. His view of evil agrees with the theological doctrine of depravity; and he taught that nothing short of a revolution will reach the difficulty. As long as such men as Kant signalize our doctrine of depravity and regeneration as philosophical principles, we need fear nothing from the speculators. Kant emphasized the intellect, while Jacobi and Schleiermacher called special attention to the heart. The latter based religion upon the feelings, and showed the emptiness of technical rationalism in this realm. Fichte's philosophy is founded on the "universal ego," in which he discusses the ego and non-Ego. His views of God as spatial, and his personality and relation to particular egos were unclear, and so far of no

service to philosophy. Schelling's illustration of thought and things by the two poles of a magnet, making the indifference point between them the absolute, amounts to the notion of pure being, which is only a verbal being, or meaningless abstraction. Amid all the ambiguities and vagaries of the right and left wings of Hegelianism, it is still clear that the author of the system was a Christian, and that in passing on from form to form there is no resting-place for his thought until the Absolute Spirit is reached. Schopenhauer's views of divine personality and the will are as vague as his ethics is pessimistic, doubtless taking root in his own gloomy, passionate, and selfish temperament. The socialist Comte, in his positivism attempting to reduce the science of mind to a special department of biology, evinces a belated mind groping after the false light of empiricism among the ruins of extinct theories of his predecessors.

There are many other profound problems along this pathway which cannot now be touched; among which are the philosophy of the incarnation and atonement. These, together with man's spiritual nature, must yet be thoroughly considered, in which are his sense of dependence, free personal agency, sense of moral obligation, conscious personal guilt, and condemnation. The conclusion must be that man was predetermined for divine fellowship.

The discussion of these questions, in view of the adaptation of revealed truth to them and the entire needs of man, socially, intellectually, and morally, will more and more show the value of Christian principles to the entire human race.

g. M. Webb.

ART. IV.-AGGRESSIVE MOVEMENTS IN MODERN BRITISH METHODISM.

It has been roughly estimated that of the relics of by gone days now in existence in the Old World three fourths are church ruins. A touch of infinite sadness comes over the reflective mind musing on the causes which produced the decay and downfall of edifices so stately and sacred, and the setting aside of organizations so needful for the world's betterment. If the rays from these beacon lights of ecclesiastical history could only catch the eyes of modern denominations swiftly traversing the down-grade of liberalism and death, and cause them to avoid the process and avert the impending doom, then the ivymantled vestiges of European sanctuaries would be invested with charms unknown to the most enthusiastic antiquarian. Of the many stages which might be located along the descending scale of a dying church's history there are few lower than failure in thorough aggressiveness. It will, therefore, be a relief to all who cherish fraternal feelings for the mother Church of all the Methodisms, as well as an incentive to increased selfeffort, to note the rise and progress of a mighty movement which places the Wesleyan legion at the front in the victorious conflict. To tabulate what has been done along the new lines in question is comparatively easy. To appreciate the difficulty of attempting any thing in the guise of innovation in English Wesleyanism is, however, a very different thing.

Any one who is familiar with the tradition, the training, and the inner spirit of this venerable society will never dream of charging it with quietly removing the ancient landmarks, or surrendering the faith once delivered to the saints for novelties, however plausible or popular. The fact is, it would be hard to conceive of the system being any thing else than rigidly conservative. The Divinity which brought such a root out of a dry ground, the special providence which developed it into its present form, the wisdom of its founder and administrators, the success of its achievements, added to the veneration natural to the British mind-all these were forces swaying the men who in turn swayed the denomination. Should the impartial student be forced to the conclusion that this particular

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