285 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Glaciers 



God's 



by immediate apprehension. Man has that 

 within him by which the invisible can be 

 seen, and the inaudible can be heard, and 

 the intangible can be felt. Not as the result 

 of any reasoning, but by the same power 

 by which it sees and feels the postulates on 

 which all reasoning rests, the human mind 

 may from the very first have felt that it 

 was in contact with a Mind which was the 

 fountain of its own. ARGYLL Unity of Na- 

 ture, ch. 11, p. 266. (Burt.) 



1386. GOD, LATIN IDEA OF Sepa- 

 rateness of the Deity vs. Greek Idea of 

 Immanence. The general effect of this in- 

 tellectual movement has been to discredit 

 more than ever before the Latin idea of 

 God as a power outside of the course of 

 Nature and occasionally interfering with 

 it. In all directions the process of evolu- 

 tion has been discovered, working after 

 similar methods, and this has forced upon 

 us the belief in the unity of Nature. We 

 are thus driven to the Greek conception of 

 God as the power working in and through 

 Nature, without interference or infraction 

 of law. FISKE Through Nature to God, pt. 

 iii, ch. 2, p. 147. (H. M. & Co., 1900.) 



1387. GOD, SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTION 



OF Theologians Have Often Narrowed the 

 Thought Science Makes It Sublime. The 

 author of " Ecce Homo " may be partially 

 right when he says : " I think a bystander 

 would say that, tho Christianity had in 

 it something far higher and deeper and 

 more ennobling, yet the average scien- 

 tific man worships just at present a more 

 awful, and, as it were, a greater deity than 

 the average Christian. In so many Chris- 

 tians the idea of God has been degraded by 

 childish and little-minded teaching; the 

 Eternal and the Infinite and the All-embra- 

 cing has been represented as the head of the 

 clerical interest, as a sort of clergyman, as 

 a sort of schoolmaster, as a sort of philan- 

 thropist. But the scientific man knows him 

 to be eternal; in astronomy, in geology, he 

 becomes familiar with the countless millen- 

 niums of his lifetime. The scientific man 

 strains his mind actually to realize God's 

 infinity. As far off as the fixed stars he 

 traces him, ' distance inexpressible by num- 

 bers that have name.' Meanwhile, to the 

 theologian, infinity and eternity are very 

 much of empty words when applied to the 

 object of his worship. He does not realize 

 them in actual facts and definite computa- 

 tions " ("Natural Religion," p. 20). 

 DRUMMOND Natural Law in the Spiritual 

 World, essay 4, p. 147. (H. Al.) 



1388. GOD WORKS THROUGH SEC- 

 OND CAUSES Beyond the Reach of Science 

 the Fiat and Finger of God. " Whatsoever 

 the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and 

 in earth, in the seas, and all deep places. 

 He causeth the vapors to ascend from the 

 ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for 

 the rain ; he bringeth the wind out of his 

 treasuries " ( Psalm cxxxv, 6-7 ) . 



Here, without any change of translation, 

 we are told of the subserviency of the vis- 

 ible instruments to the invisible but real 

 agency of him who wields them at his pleas- 

 ure. In this passage the winds are plainly 

 represented to us as the messengers of God, 

 and the flaming fire as his servant. He 

 changes no properties and no visible proc- 

 esses working, not without the wind, but 

 by it not without the electric matter, but 

 by it not without the rain, but by it 

 not without the vapor, but by it. Let the 

 philosopher tell how far back he can go in 

 exploring the method and order of these 

 respective agencies. Then we have only to 

 point further back and ask on what evi- 

 dence he can tell that the fiat and the finger 

 of a God are not there. We grant the ob- 

 served order to be invariable, save when 

 God chooses to interpose by miracle. But 

 whether he does or not from that chamber 

 of his hidden operations which philosophy 

 has not found its way to, can he so direct 

 all, so subordinate all, that whatever the 

 Lord pleases, that does he in heaven and in 

 earth, in the seas, and all deep places. 

 CHALMERS Astronomical Discourses, Suppl. 

 Disc, ii, p. 244. (E. Ct., 1848.) 



1389. GOD'S ETERNAL NOW The 



Past of Our Earth May Be Present Fact in 

 Distant Worlds An Ever-new Present as 

 Light Speeds On. Events have happened on 

 our earth and have been forgotten which, 

 'nevertheless, are at this very instant of my 

 writing visible from some one or other of 

 the orbs which people space, if only there 

 are creatures on those orbs possessing such 

 enhanced powers of vision as I have spoken 

 of; and there is no vent of such a nature 

 as to be visible from standpoints without 

 the earth which has not been thus rendered 

 visible over and over again as the light- 

 messages conveying its history have passed 

 beyond star after star (in all directions 

 from the side of the earth on which such 

 events took place) ; no such event which 

 will not be thus rendered visible over and 

 over again hereafter as the light-messages 

 travel onwards into the star depths for 

 years, for centuries, for millions on mil- 

 lions of ages, until time shall be no more. 



Now, the conception of such powers of 

 vision in creatures made by God's hands 

 may be regarded as fanciful, tho I ap- 

 prehend that our ideas in such matters are 

 very imperfect and feeble, and afford no 

 measure of what is possible. But that the 

 Almighty himself is cognizant of all these 

 light-messages who can question? To him 

 who is everywhere the light-record of all 

 that has taken place on earth is being con- 

 tinually conveyed, the remembrance is ever 

 present with him, " the eyes of the Lord 

 are in every place beholding the evil and the 

 good " [Prov. xv, 3] ; " His eyes are upon 

 the ways of man and he seeth all his 

 goings" [Job xxxiv, 21]. PROCTOR Expanse 

 of Heaven, p. 209. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



