COSMIC THEISM 



hardly be maintained on scientific grounds. It 

 is scientific inquiry, working quite independ- 

 ently of theology, which has led us to the con- 

 clusion that all the dynamic phenomena of Na- 

 ture constitute but the multiform revelation of 

 an Omnipresent Power that is not identifiable 

 with Nature. And in this conclusion there is no 

 room left for the difiiculty which baffles contem- 

 porary theology. The scientific inquirer may 

 retort upon the theologian : Once really adopt 

 the conception of an ever-present God, without 

 whom not a sparrow falls to the ground, and it 

 becomes self-evident that the law of gravitation 

 is but an expression of a particular mode of Di- 

 vine action. And what is thus true of one law 

 is true of all laws. The Anthropomorphist is 

 naturally alarmed by the continual detection of 

 new uniformities, and the discovery of order 

 where before there seemed to be disorder ; be- 

 cause his conception of Divine action has been 

 historically derived from the superficial contrast 

 between the seemingly irregular action of will and 

 the more obviously regular action of less com- 

 plex phenomena. The Cosmist, on the other 

 hand, in whose mind Divine action is identified 

 with orderly action, and to whom a really irregu- 

 lar phenomenon would seem like the manifes- 

 tation of some order-hating Ahriman, foresees 

 in every possible extension of knowledge a fresh 

 confirmation of his faith in God, and thus re- 



VOL. IV ^57 



