222 PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT. 



of such a philosophy, those who have not this internal feeling 

 of the presence and overruling Providence of God (as many 

 have not), very naturally employ the whole force of facts and 

 arguments, such as^have a very thorough development in the 

 book referred to, in support of the idea that nature develops 

 all her forms and phenomena, by an inherent force of her own, 

 independent of any superior influence, as received from a 

 Source without herself. Such theories can, of course, be suc- 

 cessfully met only by the weapons of a cogent and well- 

 grounded philosophy, as relating to the matters in dispute ; 

 but as such a philosophy does not yet prevail, to any extent, 

 in the world, it hence follows, as a fact much to be lamented, 

 that faith in God and his overruling and universal Providences, 

 is, to a large extent, at the mercy of pantheistic and material- 

 istic philosophies. Such philosophies are hence continually 

 growing more rife and rampant ; and when those who know 

 for themselves, from intuition, that there is a God ever present 

 with, and ever ruling, the affairs of creation, find themselves in- 

 competent to meet the arguments for the opposing views, they 

 are apt to grow impatient, and to descend to mere ridicule 

 and denunciation, and sometimes even to misrepresentation 

 a mode of treatment which seldom fails to excite the con- 

 tempt of those toward whom it is aimed, and even to confirm 

 them in their anti-religious theories. 



Common sense should teach every one that it is worse than 

 useless nay, perverse and wicked to close his eyes to plain 

 facts in nature, whatever may be their apparent theological or 

 philosophical bearings ; and whoever would do such an act, is 

 plainly not so much devoted to the furtherance of truth as he 

 is to the maintenance of his own opinions. Looking fully in 

 the face, therefore, as in duty bound to do, all the clearly 

 established facts exhibited by. the "Vestiges of Creation," as 



