xiii.] LIFE THE BREATH OF GOD. 335 



more the noblest-minded of them are engrossed by 

 the mystery of that unknown and truly miraculous 

 element in Nature, which is always escaping them, 

 though they cannot escape it. How should they 

 escape it? Was it not written of old: " Whither 

 shall I go from Thy presence, or whither shall I flee 

 from Thy spirit?" 



Ah that we clergy would summon up courage to 

 tell them that ! Courage to tell them what need not 

 hamper for a moment the freedom of their investiga- 

 tions, what will add to them a sanction, I may say a 

 sanctity that the unknown af which lies below all 

 phenomena, which is for ever at work on all phenomena, 

 on the whole and on every part of the whole, down to 

 the colouring of every leaf and the curdling of every cell 

 of protoplasm, is none other than that which the old 

 Hebrews called (by a metaphor, no doubt for how 

 can man speak of the unseen, save in metaphors drawn 

 from the seen ? but by the only metaphor adequate to 

 express the perpetual and omnipresent miracle) The 

 Breath of God ; The Spirit who is The Lord and Giver 

 of Life. 



In the rest, gentlemen, let us think, and let us 

 observe. For if we are ignorant, not merely of the 

 results of experimental science, but of the methods 

 thereof, then we and the men of science shall have no 

 common ground whereon to stretch out kindly hands 

 to each other. 



But let us have patience and faith; and not suppose 

 in haste, that when those hands are stretched out it 

 will be needful for us to leave our standing-ground, 

 or to cast ourselves down from the pinnacle of the 

 temple to earn popularity; above all, from earnest 



