196 ALFRED T. SCHOFIELD, ESQ., M.D., M.R.C.S., ON 



wonderful thing, but the mind that construcfs it is far more 

 wonderful " ; and I think we may say the same of the series of 

 things which we call Nature. But I suppose the great difficulty 

 which is felt by the materialist lies here — 1 refer to page 189, 

 about the middle paragraph where St. Paul's is spoken of ; — 

 we have no doubt that St. Paul's is constructed by human beings, 

 because we are in the habit of seeing human beings make 

 buildings. If no hnman being had ever been seen to mnke a 

 building, construction would be a very different thing to us, and 

 we might think it the work of natnre ; but you see here, we appeal 

 to the eye. We have seen the thing done and therefore we know 

 it is done by man. 



Now Grod is invisible, and at every stage of this discussion we 

 realize that the invisibility of God is one of the great difficulties — 

 a difficnltv which any of our working men in East London would 

 take hold of at once and say, " If I could only see God I should 

 believe at once — seeing is believing." They do not realize that 

 the highest position of man is to lift himself up above the senses — 

 to draw inferences from that which is above and beyond the 

 senses. 



Another thing which I think should be borne in mind is this — 

 that nature is constant, and the more constant it is the more we 

 take it as a matter of course, and the less we expect to find 

 a reason for it. The sun rises, we say, every day, and so we cease 

 to philosophise about it and its properties which give to us light, 

 heat and force. But how different to remember that this is the 

 work of a Being whose mercies are renewed every morning is 

 this training of the human mind which is such a help, and it 

 seems to me that the materialistic view tends to reduce the mind 

 of the believer in it to a minimum and to an animal condition 

 instead of training him up to see the things which are invisible 

 and which are the secret of all human life. 



The Author. — With regard to the Chairman's remark referring 

 to the difficulty some profess in believing in God, because they 

 have never seen Him work. "We have seen buildings erected." 

 he says, "and therefore we know that a building like St. Paul's 

 is the outcome of man's constructive power " ; but to my mind 

 the force of this argument goes the other way. If we had never 

 seen a carpenter making these tables, for instance, we should be 

 logical in saying, " These are the natural outcome of wood, as man 



