356 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says : " By 

 faith we understand that the worlds have been framed 

 by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not 

 been made out of things which do appear ; " ^ and by 

 faz/k he means what we now call " inductive evidence "• 

 It is not mere belief on slight grounds or probabilities, 

 much less crediility on a mere statement without any 

 sort of proof or evidence, but only in some fallible 

 authority. 



" How could this great heap be brought into being 

 unless a God had framed it ? " asks Charnock. " Every 

 plant, every atom, as well as every star, at the first 

 meeting whispers this in our ears, ' I have a Creator, 

 I am witness to a Deity'. Who ever saw statues or 

 pictures, but presently thinks of a statuary and limner ? 

 Who beholds garments, ships or houses, but understands 

 there was a weaver, a carpenter, an architect ? " ^ 



In a previous chapter I have carried this argument 

 further down, wherein we saw that every part and atom 

 of structure in living beings betrays Directivity ; which 

 cannot be accounted for by any known actions of purely 

 physical and chemical forces : and if a chemist can make 

 in the laboratory any organic substances, then he himself 

 is assuming the place of that Directivity which univer- 

 sally pervades the organic world. 



If any one refuses to recognise the Power in Nature, 

 he violates the laws of his own mental constitution. 



It is foreign from my province in this book, to combat 

 atheistic views, apart from the method I have followed in 

 ^xc)\!\x\^\\\.Q. positive position by inductive evidence; nor 

 do I touch upon Mr. Robertson's revival of the mythical 



1 Ileb. xi. 3. 



2 Philo, ex Petav. Theol. Dog., torn, i., lib, 1. cap. i, p. 4. [Ref. in 

 Charnock. vol. i., pp. 143, 144.] 



