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CLASSES OF BELIEFS IN REGARD TO GOD.

man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed": and then, the reason is added, "for in the image of God made he man". Here, then, again, we see the teachings of the book which purports to be a revelation of the Creator to man, are in harmony with the clearest intimations and facts of the case, so far as we can get at them; hence we may rest in the belief that man has an immortal part while the brute has not.

The various theories and beliefs in regard to God may be divided into four general classes.

FIRST :—Atheism, which may be divided into three classes. A. Blank atheism, which denies the existence of a God; this is so utterly contrary to the universal belief of the race, that few men of any note have ever held it. Among those who seem to have held it may be mentioned the names of Bentham and Mill: many of the communists and nihilists of Europe also profess to hold this view.

B. Agnosticism. The agnostic says, "We cannot know God." Among these, some, as Kant, say it is impossible to prove the existence of God, and others, as Spencer, say it is impossible to know God. Spencer says, First Prin. p. 96, "At the same time that by the laws of thought, we are rigorously prevented from forming a conception of absolute existence, we are by the laws of thought equally prevented from ridding ourselves of the consciousness of absolute existence."

C. Scepticism, which may be defined as the religion of doubt; this doubts the existence of God, the existence of the soul, etc. It says whether there be a God or not, I do not know.

SECOND:-Pantheism, or the theory that all things are a part of God. There are various phases of pantheism.

A. That which denies all spirit and says with Strauss that all matter is God. And that the universe is a result of matter and force.

B. That which says that all matter is animated with a spirit and that this soul of the material universe is God, as Spinoza.

C. That which denies the reality of the material world, and says that the universe is simply a conception of the soul, and that all spirit is a part of God, as Schilling and Hegel; for example, say they, All souls are like the ripples on the ocean, a part of the great whole." Pantheism virtually denies all creation, and all plan in the universe, and all freedom in the Deity.

CLASSES OF BELIEFS IN REGARD TO GOD.

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THIRD-Superstition. This is the worship of great, or extraordinary things. Superstition is found in every country in inverse proportion to its education and enlightenment; it is found all over Asia and Africa, and it is found mingled with some forms of Christianity.

FOURTH :-Theism, or the belief in one living God, who is above all things as Creator and upholder. This may be divided into; A. Deism; which teaches that God in the beginning, created all things and endowed all with powers and forces and that he now stands aloof from the universe. Deism of course denies revelation.

B. Theism proper, which believes that God is immanent in his universe, as well as transcendent above it. For a clear resume of the effects of these several systems of belief, see Pres. McCosh's Div. Gov't., pages 207-215.

CHAPTER SECOND.

'Who laid the foundations of the earth?" [Ps. civ. 5.]

First proof of the existence of a personal First Cause of all things, from the great difficulties connected with every . atheistic theory of the universe.

FIRST-Difficulties connected with the origin of matter. Most atheistic materialists say that matter is eternal, and that the universe has developed itself by chance, or in accordance with its own laws of evolution. The only other theory is that matter itself has increased from prior germs or molecules of matter. On either theory, the original matter has existed from all eternity; hence, it was either in motion from all eternity, or not. If it was in motion from all eternity, why has it not reached the present stage of development by evolution long ages ago?

Spencer says, that "Matter, motion and force, as cognisable to human intelligence, can neither come into existence nor cease to exist." But, if motion is eternal, then the theory of the evolution of the universe without a God cannot be true. Bain's hypothesis, if true, would relieve this difficulty somewhat He supposes that matter, or the molecules of matter are a kind of double faced entities, one face material, and the other spiritual; not to mention the difficulty that this theory is utterly inconceivable, as putting into the same entity things diametrically opposed to each other, as matter and spirit are, it virtually makes each one of the molecules, which only have a theoretical existence, a God, and we have in one cubic inch of air, according to the computation of scientists, not less than 300,000,000,000,000,000,000 of them. This pantheon exceeds that of ancient Rome and that of the Shinto mythology of Japan.

If matter was not in motion from the beginning, how did it begin to move? No force from within existed to originate motion, else why did it sleep from all eternity and then suddenly wake up to cause motion? No finite force from without existed to hit it and cause any part of it to move.

If this original matter was eternal, then it must have existed eternally without motion, and at some time there was a beginning of motion. What began it? Again, if the first matter has grown into a universe containing greatly different agencies, among which are matter and mind, some of which were not in the original matter, where were the forces within, or without the original matter to cause these changes?

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When we come to examine matter more closely, we find similar difficulties; every substance has its own form of crystallization. What causes this form? The only theory which attempts to account for it is the one which supposes that the molecules of each substance have their own form, by virtue of which they crystallize in the masses in which they do. These molecules are inconceivably small. One cubic inch of air is said to contain 300,000,000,000,000,000,000 of them; and 'the molecules of each substance, such as oxygen for example, are taken from very different places, from the air, from the sea, from rock formations, down deep in the earth, and from meteoric stones; the circumstances of some of these specimens have for thousands of years been different, but the most delicate tests that can be applied to them fail to show any difference in any of their properties; they all have the same mass; they all unite with exactly the same quantity of hydrogen to form water, and they all vibrate, when struck, to precisely the same note of light. Moreover, the spectroscope reveals to us the same identity of properties between any one kind of matter in the most distant star, as in those close at hand. But this identity can only be the result of absolute identity in the form of the molecules, if molecules exist; there must be an identity of form, but such an identity can never be produced by any process of evolution; evolution implies continual change, gradual variation of form and properties; and variety is always one of the characteristics of its results; but the molecules in all places, on this planet, or on other planets,and in all ages, seem to be absolutely alike, and they cannot have been produced by any process of evolution without a Creator." Hence, some of the best scientists, as for example Clerk Maxwell, Stewart and Tait, who have examined the

subject, say that, "Molecules have every appearance of

manufactured articles." Who manufactured them?

When we come to examine the different forces of matter, we meet still further difficulty in their total disparateness and consequent underivability from any primal force.

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DIFFERENT FORCES OF MATTER.

1.-Gravitation. 2.-Electric, or magnetic attraction. For example, a magnet lifts iron filings. To do it by gravitation, the force of gravitation would have to be increased a billion times. 3. We have chemical affinity; for example, the force expended in producing nine pounds of water is equal to that of a ton falling several thousand feet. 4. We have vital force, which seems to bear no affinity, or relation to the other forces; for example, the action of chemical affinity is suspended through life, but as soon as life ceases chemical affinity asserts itself and decomposes the tissues. 5.-We have force in rational, free will which is higher yet, and is not correlated to the other forces.

Then, again, the various forms of activity which matter exhibits would imply a cause outside of itself. For example, we have magnetism and electricity as polar forces, and we have heat, light, and chemical affinity as non-polar or radiant forces. Again, gravity varies inversely as the square of the distance; chemical affinity varies inversely as the cube of the distance; magnetic or electric repulsion varies inversely as the fifth power of the distance. Whence come all these differing forces and modes of matter?

SECOND-Let us consider the difficulties connected with the motion of the universe. We have already spoken, under the former head, of the difficulty connected with the beginning of motion. But just as surely as the universe had a beginning, will it have an end, says science. The hills and mountains of our earth are being worn down level and the earth is gradually growing cooler; the earth must sometime become a cooled cinder like the moon, and then all the water and the air will gravitate into the holes of the rocks of the cooled earth. The sun also is growing cooler, it is impossible that the sun can continue to throw off such a vast quantity of heat in every direction and not cool off. Astronomers tell us that the suns that we see in the heavens are first white with the hottest white heat, then yellow with a lesser heat, then variable in color, and finally red like a dying ember. Our sun has already reached the variable stage.

(See Winchell's Reconciliation of Science and Religion,

p. 175)

Again, astronomers tell us that there is everywhere in space a thin ether which is sufficient to retard the vaporous comets so as to gradually bring them nearer the sun. This is shown by the fact that Encke's comet, which has a period of about three and a half years around the sun, completes its re