ON THE UNREASONABLENESS OP AGNOSTICISM. 73 



we can know Him as a God of power^ a God of wisdom, and a 

 God of benevolence. True, we may not know all that is to be 

 learnt of God, for Ho is the Infinite, and we are finite. We 

 are, as it were, but one of the little streams which run down 

 the mountain-sides, while He is the mighty ocean^ and of 

 course the lesser cannot contain the whole of the greater. 

 Man's mind is but a part of the fulness of the Creator, and 

 so it cannot contain the whole ; but yet, as it is a part, it is 

 able to recognise and understand something of the nature of 

 its great Original, and so we maintain that God is known by 

 His works, and known, not as a mere abstraction, but as a 

 Being. Every blade of grass that springs up out of the 

 ground, every tiny insect that flies in the air, every sentient 

 being that walks the earth, and every law of nature bears 

 the impress of intelligence ; and thus we can know enough 

 of God to lead us to acknowledge His power and give Him 

 our service. And what the understanding fails to grasp, for 

 want of capacity, faith, the soul's eye and hand, perceives 

 and embraces ; and thus there is an inward realisation that 

 " this God is our God for ever and ever, and that He will be 

 our guide even unto death." 



Fourth Proposition. — God lias made a revelation to man of 

 those tilings luliich could not otlierivise he hioivn. Having 

 shown why we consider God to be in a measure " knowable," 

 and having conceded the point that, inasmuch as God is an 

 Infinite Being and man but finite, there must of necessity be 

 in His nature much which cannot be found out, we pass to 

 the consideration of the means by which the unknowable 

 element in the knowable may be known. 



Those persons who receive the teaching of Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer consider that a revelation from God to man is not 

 "conceivable," is not "^ thinkable," and therefore they do 

 not accept the Bible as a book containing such a revelation. 

 To such we offer the following considerations : — 



First. — It is beyond doubt that man is able to recognise in 

 himself a personality which is endowed with a certain freedom 

 of will. And it is also beyond doubt that man's mind — that 

 is, the power by which he becomes conscious of his own per- 

 sonality — owes its existence to a greater mind, a greater 

 Personality, who by the very act of bestowing it on man 

 proved He possessed absolute power to communicate. In 

 other words, it is beyond doubt that the Divine Mind did at 

 the first endow man with a mind — did, in fact, communicate 

 to man a quality found only in connexion with personality. 



Second, — Admittino- that the communication of the Divine 



