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REMARKS BY THE REV. R. COLLINS, M.A. 



This paper arouses the mind very forcibly to the consideration of the 

 question, what must be our ultimate defence against Modern Materialism / 

 I think the true answer is, unquestionably, we must take our stand on History. 

 "We have, perhaps, too long expended our powers in chiefly endeavouring to 

 show the weak points in the Materialist's line of thought, we have dealt 

 largely in negatives. It is not very difficult to show that many of the 

 assumptions of the materialist are too absurd for belief ; and yet it is 

 possible to mistake or misstate them. For instance, the Materialist does 

 not attribute design to the animal or plant that improves itself. The note 

 on page 8 correctly expresses the evolutionist's theory : but he would not, as 

 on the same page, speak of an animal " discerning the advantage of tenta- 

 cula," &c. With the materialists the will and intelligence are simply 

 "physical phenomena produced by, or associated with " molecular processes," 

 excited in the brain by external circumstances; the will or ''cogitation" has 

 no hand in Evolution, only the inherent forces of nature, or whatever other 

 term may be used; so that, as Professor Huxley SHVS, "the whole world, 

 living and not living, is the result of the mutual inter-action, according to 

 definite laws, of the forces possessed by the molecules of which the primitive 

 nebulosity of the universe was composed." These forces, however, always 

 manage to work for harmony ; and the evolutionists are obliged to use, or 

 choose to use, the language of intelligence. Darwin's phrase " natural selec- 

 tion " is a case in point. This always seems to me a tacit, though no doubt 

 unwilling, testimony to the fast, that "final causes" are being worked up to ; 

 and it is difficult to conceive that, without supposing previous intention 

 somewhere. And yet intention is no part of the Evolutionist's theory. 



How are we then, in our turn, to explain the potency or potencies, or 

 whatever term may be acceptable, under which the Cosmos is what 

 it is ? Mr. Herbert Spencer unifies this effort in Nature, and expresses 

 it as " an Infinite and Eternal Energy from which all things proceed." 

 Our mission is to show that the Infinite and Eternal Energy is the Energy 

 of an Infinite and Eternal Intelligence : and to persuade men of this 

 we must fortify our statement that this Intelligence has spoken to man 

 Natural Religion and mere reason have not weapons strong enough 

 for the entire defeat of Materialism. We need Revelation. In short, 

 we must gather our forces more and more within the domain of 

 History. 'Ihe "inward testimony" of man a point emphatically brought 

 out in Mr. Blencowe's paper existing as far back as we can trace his 

 history, to the existence of a Creator and Upholder of all things, is, in fact, 



