VEN. ARCHDEACON SINCLAIR, ON THE BEING OF GOD. 75 
will pass before the supposition becomes verified. It is 
probable that each supposition which succeeds the other will 
be greatly changed from its original appearance before it is 
generally adopted. But the majestic uniformities and com- 
binations of nature are ever shining forth in more august 
and sublime proportions to the reverent gaze of the genuine 
student. Absolute Atheism seems to be more widely dis- 
credited, and the scientists who do not believe are for the 
most part saying just what we should expect ; not that they 
deny, but that in the technical scientific sense they do not 
know. They are unconsciously echoing the very words of 
the Book of Job :-— 
Canst thou by searching find out God ? 
Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection ? 
It is high as heaven ; what canst thou do? 
Deeper than the depth ; what canst thou know ? 
2. What is meant by Agnosticism. 
That is most of what is really meant by the spectral bug- 
bear of Agnosticism: Belief is not intended to be scientific 
knowledge. We seem to hear in the language of such men 
some note of the exclamation of St. Paul: /lere we see 
through a glass darkly. “Whatever may be the difficulty,” 
says the late Professor Diman, “of demonstrating the 
existence of God, to prove that there is not a God is 
manifestly beyond the power of human intellect. That the 
Eternal Being exists is a proposition, the truth of which it 
may be possible to deduce from a circle of facts lying within 
our immediate range; but to prove that God does not exist 
we must have sounded the Universe in all its length and 
breadth. Even if you suppose that He had left no traces of 
His existence in the narrow field open to our inspection, we 
yet cannot affirm that no such trace exists in the measureless 
space which we have never explored; even if He has never 
uttered His voice during the brief years that we have lived, 
we still could not declare with certainty that He has never 
revealed Himself to other beings during the eternal round 
of Time.” 
3. What is meant by Evolution. 
And when some of us shrink beck from the idea of the 
purpose of God in creation being unfolded as a contem- 
poraneous process, and, neglecting the warning of St. Paul 
