188 W. L. COURTNEY, M.A., LL.D., ON 
hence the absolute certainty of the Kantian teaching. As to the 
remarks at page 178 in regard to a ceaseless chain of causation, 18 
he prepared to defend the statements in regard thereto? The con- 
clusion of Dr. Courtney’s paper is the part which I particularly 
enjoyed, if he will allow me to say so. The reasoning to ultimate 
good was most admirable,—but is not the ultimate good merely 
the fulfilling of God’s Will? The actual attainment of a will in 
complete harmony with the Supreme Law—that is, likeness to 
God. That, I apprehend, is the ultimate good. 
Rev. A. K. Cuerritt, M.A.—I was very pleased to hear the 
remarks of the Chairman as to the difference between scepticism 
in philosophy and scepticism in religion. It seems to me that a good 
deal hangs upon that—in fact that interesting book, A Defence of 
Scientific Doubt, is one of the soundest owtworks in defence of 
religion when properly considered. But with regard to the argu- 
ment mainly insisted on this evening, as to our knowledge of God, it 
seems to me that this comparison with philosophical scepticism leads 
us to very important considerations in the following way :—Philoso- 
phical scepticism shows us what is thenature of the argument or proof 
as to the real existenceof matter; for Kantshowsus that we only know 
the phenomena, but we are obliged to believe that there lies behind 
the phenomena a real existence, a thing in itself of the nature of 
which we cannot form any opinion, because it is not given to us in 
our senses. ‘This seems to my mind to present a most instructive 
analogy to the nature of our knowledge of God. The author of the 
paper referred to the fact that the belief in the existence of God 
has, as it were, of necessity, existed in almost every nation, and 
Professor Max Miller in his Lectures on Physical Religion, 
as he calls it, shows how the idea of God necessarily arises in the 
mind of man from the contemplation of the phenomena of nature, 
because when man sees effects he, of necessity, is led to infer an 
agent.* Thus it appears that our beliefs in a material and spiritual 
reality underlying the phenomena of nature have the same origin ; 
we realize the effect which is produced on us. For example, in 
the case of the sun—we first of all see a moving thingy up in the 
* As another member, the Rev. R. Collins, M.A., expresses it : “ Kant 
taught that though the Being of Gcd cannot be scientifically proved, yet 
faith possesses a swbjective certainty which demands the obedience of man- 
kind.”— Ep. 
