Creation. 2 8 1 



To harmonize in thought the belief in God as a Spirit, 

 .and belief in the origin of matter by His creative 

 power, it is open to the thinker to modify his con- 

 ception of Uod, or of matter, or to bring them to- 

 gether in an act not of knowledge, but of faith. 



The conception of matter may be modified. Berke- , 

 ley, seeing that the atheism of his day lurked in 

 matter, attempted to remove the shelter for unbelief 

 by denying the existence of matter, except as an idea, 

 laying down the principle that its essence is to be 

 perceived. Minds with power of intellection so con- 

 ditioned as to yield a world, subjective in its origin, 

 but objective to consciousness, can be readily thought 

 of as created in the likeness of the supreme Intelli- 

 gence, and the difficulty of the origination of matter is 

 -evaded. But every system of idealism must encounter 

 the ineradicable belief that a world external to the 

 mind exists. There is, however, a quite needless use 

 of disparaging epithets when matter is spoken of in 

 contrast with spirit. The physicist has done much 

 to alter this tone of thought, and to elevate the con- 

 ception of the material universe as a work of God. 

 It is impossible to study the visible cosmos without 

 having our admiration excited at every step. There 

 is nothing foul in the world apart from the depravity 

 of moral evil. This mass of ice melts into a running 

 stream ; it rises into vapour ; touched by the morning 

 sunlight it glows with the most brilliant hues; the 

 cloud vanishes into the azure sky : the solid mass is 



