FORMS OF ATTACK 25 



physical? To assert that they are is pure dogmatism, 

 and a dogmatism which contradicts the testimony of 

 consciousness. We know our own personahty, and 

 that knowledge opens up the superphysical world 

 just as really as the knowledge of sensible phenomena 

 opens up the physical world. Having once gained 

 access to the superphysical, the only way in which we 

 can ascertain the limits of our possible knowledge 

 thereof is by trying to know as much of it as we can.^ 

 This is true of every kind of knowledge. It is impos- 

 sible to get a mental standpoint outside of knowledge, 

 and only from such a standpoint is it possible to dog- 

 matize in advance as to how much we can know in 

 any sphere of realities that is accessible to our minds.^ 

 Our knowledge of human personality is the gateway 

 to knowledge of divine personality; and Christians 

 claim to possess a real, although, of course, a very 

 partial, knowledge of God. This knowledge is obtained 

 by divine grace, and grace is the telescope, so to speak, 

 by which we are enabled to explore the spiritual heavens. 

 For those who will not employ this telescope to deny 

 the rational validity of the knowledge which is gained 

 by its use is a species of a priori dogmatism which 

 cannot demonstrate its conclusion by any evidence 



1 Even Sir Wm. Hamilton says, "We know, and can know, nothing 

 a priori of what is possible or impossible to mind, and it is only by 

 observation and generalization a posteriori that we can ever hope to 

 attain insight into the question." Cf. Schurman, Belief in God, 

 pp. 27, 28. 



2 See the author's Being and Attributes of God, ch. ii. § 8, and 

 Introd. to Dog. TheoL, ch. v. Pt. I, 



