102 . Science and the Bible. [Jan.
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itself; that is, the power at work. Let there be a universe of worlds,
full of living beings, and we still have no authority, from science, to
assert the existence of a principle of life actuating that universe,
beyond what belongs severally to each living being in it.
A
study of Nature gives us, therefore, no basis for the notion of a
living universal nature, capable more or less completely of
self-development. Suppose the world to be in its condition of inorganic
progress; we have no scientific ground for supposing that it could pass
to a higher state, possessing living beings, by any parturient powers
within. Or if life exists; we still get no hint as to the evolution of
the four Sub-kingdoms of animal life from a universal germ; nor as to
the origin of the Class-types, Order,—Family,—or Genus-types, or those
of Species, each of which is a distinct idea in the plan of creation.
Nature
in fact pronounces such a theory of evolution false, absolutely false,
as we observe more particularly on a following page. It also proves the
Divinity to be present at every step in creation, in the ordering of
the globe in each physical feature, as well as in the plan and
evolution of the life-kingdoms. The perpetual presence of Mind,
infinite in power, wisdom, and love, and ever-acting, is so manifest in
the whole history of the past, that the pantheistic theory which makes
Nature God, is much the least absurd of the two. It regards Nature more
in accordance with the analogies of a being like man, in which mind is
uninterruptedly immanent, instead of an entity only now and then roused
by an external mind. From the pantheistic doctrine we rise to true
theism, by recognizing that whatever perfections belong to Nature, must
be in or of God, as his power and attributes, and in an infinite
degree. Hence physical attributes do not constitute God: for if we
reject the idea that a sense of justice, truth, and love is evinced by
the physical world, still man has these moral qualities ; and therefore
they must be among the attributes of Deity. And in addition, man has
over all a free will; and therefore this also, but in its infinitude,
must be an attribute of the God of Nature. Such a
