156 MODERN I DP: AS OF EVOLUTION 



causes. If, then, there is a First Cause behind all 

 material things and energies, it is impossible that we 

 can be wholly ignorant of the properties of that 

 cause. We may be sure, not only that it exists, but 

 that it includes in it potentially all the phenomena 

 which flow from it. Thus if we know that there is a 

 cause behind all phenomena, we cannot be agnostics 

 in reference to that cause. We must be thcists, un 

 less we prefer to call ourselves monists or pantheists. 



Yet it is not necessary that we should know 

 everything about the First Cause. Nay, it is impossible 

 that we should do so unless we first attain to perfect 

 knowledge of all that it has produced, and this we 

 know to be impossible. Here, again, revelation is at 

 one with science. We cannot by searching find 

 out God ; we can know only parts of His ways ; 

 He is unsearchable. No man hath seen God at 

 any time. It is not in that way that we can know 

 Him, but only in so far as He may have revealed 

 Himself to us. Yet we have held out to us the grand 

 and inviting prospect that a time may come when 

 we shall know even as we are known. 



The question remains, How much can we know 

 of God from nature? In scientific investigations as 

 to causes, our knowledge of these depends on the 

 extent of our knowledge of their effects. In the case, 

 for example, of light and electricity, we have accumu 

 lated great stores of observed and experimental facts : 

 these enable us to arrive at the laws of the energies 



