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1879.1 - L ^ t4 | Chase. 



while physical research continues so rife as it now is, of our becoming too 

 spiritual ; consequently there is little risk in the spread of spiritual instruc- 

 tion, as an antidote to the philosophy which ignores all spiritual control. 

 These grand maxims should he indelibly impressed on every mind, and 

 above all on the minds of physical investigators ; that " we have a higher 

 warrant for believing in God than for believing in any other truth what- 

 ever;"* that the simplest exercise of thought proves the existence of spirit, 

 while the existence of matter " as a distinct entity has never been proved, 

 and is seriously questioned ;"f and that, even after we have granted the 

 reality of an inert, unknowing somewhat, which underlies material phe- 

 nomena, we should still look to the wisdom which sways, as higher than 

 the ignorance which is swayed. 



Our age is often called an age of materialism, but when we compare it 

 with previous ages we may find much to be said in its favor, while the 

 faults, with which it is justly chargeable, lie partly at the doors of Chris- 

 tian believers who have neglected their religious duties. Most investiga- 

 tors, in every age, limit their researches to fields in which there is the 

 greatest likelihood of discovery, and in which general interest may be most 

 readily awakened by direct appeals to the senses. This is in accordance 

 with evident Creative Design, for the senses are the only known avenues 

 of intercourse between the spirit of man and the material universe, and the 

 beginnings of education come through such intercourse. The great end of 

 education is, however, spiritual, and if our spiritual teachers do not keep 

 pace with the age, we must all suffer loss. We need, therefore, educated 

 guides, as well as educated followers ; a body of apostles, prophets, evan- 

 gelists, pastors and teachers,:): capable of understanding and rightly quali- 

 fied for interpreting and reconciling, the truths which skillful decipherers 

 have drawn from the Bible of creation, as well as those kindred truths of 

 kindred revelation in the Bible of Scripture, and in the Bible of the soul. 



Although timidity has hitherto greatly blocked the way against such in- 

 terpretation, we have reason for congratulation in the unconscious shaping 

 of physical theories by spiritual intuitions. Newton, near the close of his 

 Principia, says: "This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and 

 comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion ot an intelligent 

 and powerful Being ;" and in his third letter to Bentley : " It is inconceiv- 

 able that inanimate brute matter, should, without the mediation of some- 

 thing else which is not material, operate upon and affect other matter with- 

 out mutual contact ;" La Place supposed the velocity of gravitating action 

 to be instantaneous, a velocity which is impossible save through a spiritual 

 medium; Tyndall, in speaking of the "potency" of matter, expressly 

 admits that he does not seek to degrade spirit, but to elevate matter, and in 

 his Manchester lecture he indignantly disclaims "that creed of atheism 

 which has been so lightly attributed to him ;" Huxley avows himself a 

 spiritualist, rather than a materialist ; Maudesley regards will, as the highest 



* Ex-President Thomas Hill. 

 t Rowland G. Hazzard. 

 t Eph. iv, 11. 



