Chase] J-^U [Feb. 7, 



they shall he filled." All nature teems with the evidence of physical 

 adaptations to physical needs. Those who are spiritually enlightened will 

 find still stronger evidence of abundant provision for all spiritual need-. 

 The daily bread for which we are taught to pray is indeed the "bread 

 of life," the bread which will satisfy to the uttermost all the hungering 

 both of body and of soul. The Father who feedeth the fowls of the air, 

 providing for the wants which He has implanted in His humblest creatures, 

 is not unmindful of the more important wants of the being who was made 

 in His image, and who was endowed with "dominion over the fish of the 

 sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth 

 upon the earth." 



All true philosophy, Christian philosophy in an especial manner, is al- 

 ways cautious, teachable, longing for greater knowledge and greater faith, 

 glad even to welcome reproof when it tends to the correction of mistakes. 

 It looks towards the infinite as well as the finite, towards the absolute as 

 well as the relative, towards the unknowable as well as the knowable, un- 

 der a conviction that even where it cannot hope for a full satisfaction of 

 all its longings it may gain strength by wrestling with difficulties, and with 

 the unhesitating assurance that the higher its aims the more profitable will be 

 its victories. While modestly acknowledging the limitations which have 

 been imposed upon it, it answers the fundamental questions, — 'a) What? 

 (b) How? (c) Why? — by asserting (a) the possibility of knowledge, (b) 

 by means of consciousness, (c) because the Creator of man's consciousness 

 designed it for the acquisition of truth. 



Any intimation of a possibility that human power, human wisdom, or 

 human design may be the highest power, or wisdom, or design in the uni- 

 verse, or any hesitation to deny such a possibility, the Christian philoso- 

 pher regards as an unfortunate manifestation of ignorance. Such igno- 

 rance may be excusable in those who are honestly seeking for truth in 

 other directions, and wherever it exists it is the part of true modesty to 

 acknowledge it. But if the ignorant man should try to impose his igno- 

 rance upon others, as an insurmountable barrier to knowledge, or if the 

 Christian should hesitate to affirm the absolute and undeniable truth of his 

 answers to the three essential questions of philosophy, no pretense of 

 modesty could shield him from the charge of blasphemous arrogance. 



Every philosophical or religious system which has any claim to consider- 

 ation, must have its dogmas ; its positive convictions ; its formulated 

 truths or articles of belief;* its "necessary expression in ideas, of the 

 feelings and moral and spiritual laws and conditions which the unity and 

 relationship of heart, conscience, will and intellect in many require should 

 be maintained. "f Such dogmas, instead of setting aside the Baconian 

 methods, are the most obvious results of observation and experiment and 

 legitimate logical deduction. But while dogmas are useful, dogma- 

 tism, in the sense of arrogant assertion and with a denial of any of the 



* Krauth-Fleming. Vocab. of the Philos. Sciences. 

 tH. W. Bellows. 



