228 THE GOSPEL, AND THE SOCIAL CREED OF SCIENCE. 



universe; this thought and lesson when deeply im- 

 pressed upon us, tends to beget in us the spirit of resigned 

 if not of cheerful acceptance of these evils which can be 

 demonstrated to be unavoidable ; while the additional 

 experience that rebellion against natural law only in- 

 creases our evils by bringing besides its own special 

 punishment, makes us take still further to heart the 

 lesson of science and experience. Still more, when we 

 remember that the invariability of physical and natural 

 law, which sometimes presses so severely upon us as to 

 call for all our patience, is precisely that feature which 

 not only makes possible all the good that we enjoy, but 

 which also gives us our mastery over Nature, with all the 

 positive good which thence results, as well as partial 

 deliverance from evils which are not inevitable then 

 our resignation becomes the easier and more natural, our 

 gratitude the greater. The religious sentiment of resig- 

 nation to the evil, of gratitude for the good, and of 

 complete final dependence upon a law-governed cosmos 

 is thus naturally produced in us. 



We think no more of asking Nature to spare us from 

 special evils, which are a part of her general beneficent 

 order, when exemption could only be obtained on con- 

 ditions which would be subversive of this order, and 

 which, even if possible or conceivable, it would be impious 

 as well as absurd to ask, as rendering impossible a greater 

 good to others and even to ourselves. 



3. But are we not thus shut fast in prison behind 

 the bars of these necessary laws ? Are we not bound in 

 the fetters of these unbroken chains of causation which 

 Science everywhere discloses in the world of mind as in 

 matter, in the succession of thoughts and volitions, as 

 well as in the succession of physical facts and events ? 

 Are we not on all sides, and everywhere we turn, met by 



