4 THE OLD AND THE NEW 



go on in the course which he had set it upon, he established 

 certain laws which should act as independent rulers of the forces 

 of nature, competent to influence the origin, the development, 

 and growth of all things, without any further interposition of 

 his power. 



This is indeed the most insidious form in which Materialism 

 has attempted to make its first approaches to the citadel of our 

 belief in a ruling Providence. It acknowledges the primary 

 interposition of the Great First Cause, but eventually would 

 make it seem possible that his power can be made to operate in 

 such a way that his very existence is not necessary ; for, say 

 they, why should he continue to exist, if the laws which he has 

 established can control the work for him ? And now then, so 

 much being allowed, the next step in the fallacy is in this guise. 



It being admitted that these forces are competent to perform 

 all the offices of a Creator ; they being equally powerful to create 

 and to destroy, to determine the movements of this mighty uni- 

 verse or to originate new ones ; all this being admitted, why, 

 then, are they not equally powerful and omnipresent as a Crea- 

 tor ; what is there not in them that a Creator possesses ; if noth- 

 ing, then why may they not have given rise to their own exist- 

 ence, or have existed eternally ; in fine, what more is needed to 

 constitute them a Great First Cause ? 



Your ready answer no doubt will be that the revelation de- 

 clares the existence of a God ! Truly ! And it is this revelation 

 which satisfies a large portion of the community ; but then there 

 is still a great body of readers and thinkers, inquiring minds, 

 who would like to know more about the manner in which the 

 Creator manifests himself. What did the King of Israel mean, 

 they ask, when he said, " The heavens declare the glory of God ; 

 and the firmament showeth his handy work ? " 



I hope in the course of these lectures to be able to answer this 

 question to your fullest satisfaction. In doing this, it is my 

 design to proceed in an argument to prove that there is a power 

 at work in the universe which possesses foreknowledge ; the 

 design of a forecasting, foreordaining mind, a thinking, intel- 



