RATIONALISTIC CRITICISMS 353 



Hence in the Old Testament, we find the conception 

 of God passing through various grades, so to speak, till 

 we come to the psalmists and prophets, who speak of 

 Him as loving and sympathetic towards man, the widow 

 and the orphan, as well as having righteous and merciful 

 traits of character taken from the improved condition of 

 man's mind and heart. 



The important question which concerns us now is : 

 Are all these anthropomorphic conceptions of the Deity 

 purely Subjective creations of man's brain, or is there any 

 Objective reality corresponding to them ? 



The Christian says " Yes " ; but the Monist and 

 Rationalist say " No ". 



I maintain that Xho. probabilities of a Conscious Mind 

 in Nature are as great as those in other matters which 

 men accept as undeniable truths ; but cannot prove by 

 experimental evidence. 



It is worth while considering a few of them, to show 

 that the belief in God being based on parallel lines of 

 inductive evidence is quite as reasonable as many which 

 scientists hold. 



It is advisable to select these from scientific conclu- 

 sions, because Monists and Rationalists assert that 

 science is par excellence the one thing to be trusted ; and 

 whatever cannot be brought within the pale of her 

 region, need not be accepted as infallible truth. 



I have already alluded to the fact that the rotation 

 of the earth cannot be proved by observation and ex- 

 periment ; for it is only believed because it is infinitely 

 more probable that the earth revolves on its axis in 

 twenty-four hours, than that the sun and stars should 

 do so, considering their distances are so great or in- 

 calculable. 



As another instance of Inductive Evidence let us 



