158 MODERX IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, Paul affirms 

 with respect to the latter that the invisible things of 

 God, even His eternal power and divinity, can be per 

 ceived by them, being understood by the things that 

 are made. It will be observed here that the Apostle 

 refers only to attributes or properties of God as 

 knowable by us. Of His essence we can know 

 nothing, any more than we can of the essence of 

 material things. He also admits that these attributes 

 arc invisible, not objects of sensuous perception, but 

 only of mental study. He affirms, however, that to 

 a certain extent they can be known ; and the amount 

 of the knowledge he expresses by the two terms 

 power and divinity, the one referring to the energy 

 manifested in nature, the other to the superhuman 

 skill and contrivance which it presents to our investi 

 gation. This is all that the material universe can 

 directly teach us of God ; but from this, as he proceeds 

 to explain, we can inferentially learn more. 



This doctrine of Paul has the advantage that it 

 can appeal to an actual fact in human history, namely, 

 that men have inferred power and energy as behind 

 Nature, and that they have usually perceived in its 

 combinations of means to ends intelligence as well. 

 If we regard the universe as a mere machine exceed 

 ing all our powers of calculation in its magnitude 

 and gigantic forces, it seems to the last degree absurd 

 to deny that it presents a manifestation of power. 

 As the late Dr. Carpenter has well said, an agnostic 



