XII.] TnEOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 2G5 



result of llie mode inculcated by the Churcli is, that each 

 one may freely afllrin and act upon the higliest human con- 

 cei)tions he can attain of the power, wisdom, and goodness 

 of God, His watchful care, His loving providence for every 

 man, at every moment and in every need; for the Chris- • 

 lian knows that the falseness of his conceptions lies only in 

 their innchfjnary ; he may therefore strengthen and re- 

 fresh himscilf, may rejoice and revel in concej)tions of the 

 goodness of God, drawn from the tendercst human images 

 of fatherly cue and love, or he may cliasten and abase 

 himself by consideration of the awful holiness and unap- 

 proaf^hable majesty of the Divinity derived from analogous 

 sources, knowing that no thought of man can ever be true 

 enovgh^ can ever attain the incompi-chensiblc reality, which 

 nevertheless really ?.9 all that can be conceived, plus an in- 

 conceivable infinity bej^ond. 



A good illustration of what is here meant, and of the 

 di (Terence between the theistic jwsition and Mr. Spencer's, 

 may be supj^lied by an examj^le he has himself pi\)poscd. 

 Thus,' he imagines an intelligent watch speculating as to 

 its maker, and conceiving of him iir terms of watch-being, 

 and figuring him as furnished with sj^rings, escajiements, 

 cogged wheels, etc., his motions facilitateil bv oil — in a 

 "word, like himself. It is assumed by Mr. Spencer that this 

 necessary watch conception would be completely false, and 

 the illustration is made use of to show " the presumption of 

 theologians " — the absurdity and unreasonableness of those 

 men who figure the incomprehensible cause of all phenom- 

 ena as a Being in some way comparable with man. Now, 

 putting aside for the moment all other considerations, and 

 accepting the illustration, surely the examjile demonstrates 

 rather the unreasonableness of the objector himself f It is 

 true, indeed, that a man is an organism indefinitely more 

 complex and perfect than any w^atch ; but, if the watch 



• Loc cit., p. Ill 

 12 



