RATIONAL LIFE 329 



misinterpretation of the existing order. Guided 

 further still by Science, we have come to recognise 

 marvels all around us. In presence of these, our 

 ignorance, vast and insuperable, must awaken within 

 us reverence even for Nature itself, much more for 

 the God of Nature, showing His power, and manifest 

 ing His will, in the fixed laws of the Universe. 

 Kecognising that the search for causes must result in 

 acknowledgment of a beginning of the existing order, 

 we are sustained by the whole breadth of scientific 

 knowledge, in owning the First Cause as the Eternal, 

 the Self-existent, the Infinite. 



If, passing from the field of pure thought to the 

 field of practice, we meet the tests supplied by human 

 activity and experience, Christianity and Agnosticism 

 are placed in contrast. When this is done, it is 

 plain enough where the advantage lies. Agnosticism 

 is a negation; in the realm of energy, a restraint, 

 except as it leads to active and influential criticism ; 

 having otherwise no place among the world-forces 

 telling in the history of human progress. Christianity 

 is a living power, claiming to be judged by its fruits. 

 It has inspired men with a lofty ideal ; it has helped 

 them in the struggle against sorrow and sin ; it has 

 inspired them with hope of immortality. 



All inquiry, scientific and philosophic, must close 

 by admitting the limits of knowledge; by granting 

 that the mysteries of existence are many and great, 

 transcending all powers of human understanding. 

 With all the knowledge which the labours of science 

 have stored up for us ; with all the thought, analytic 

 and synthetic, into which philosophy has con 

 ducted us ; with full sense of the unique service 



