44 REV. CHANCELLOR LIAS, M.A., ON 



On being asked to read a third paper on this subject, it 

 seemed to me that I could not do better than endeavour to 

 •estimate the bearing at once of modern scientific research 

 and of modern rehgious thought on our earher conceptions 

 of God. But I Avouid ask ray hearers to bear in mind that 

 while, in compiling my former papers, I had excellent 

 libraries close at hand, I am now far from them, and that 

 the exigencies of a somewhat large, scattered, and populous 

 rural parish, as well as other circumstances only too well 

 known to those Avho study Church problems at the present 

 time, jDrevent me from going to consult them. Illness, too, 

 of a disabling kind came on while I was preparing these 

 observations. I must therefore, in ray present paper, sub- 

 stitute the light of nature for study and research. Perhaps 

 this, however, may not be in every way a defect. It has 

 occurred to me not infrequently of late that the stress and 

 strain, the hurry and bustle in which we live, are unfavourable 

 to reflection, and that now, more than ever, " much study 

 is a weariness of the flesh." If one attempts to read all that 

 is written on the latest theory Avhich has attracted attention, 

 one attempts the impossible. One also finds that wliat is 

 written post haste to catch the public ear does not always 

 repay the trouble of perusal, and tliat if the literary activity 

 of the hour could only find time for a few "brilliant flashes 

 •of silenc(3," the world Avould be none the poorer for it. 



My paper on the " Unknown and Unknowable of ]\Iodern 

 Thought " has recently been criticized by my friend Professor 

 Caldecott in his learned and most interesting book on The 

 P/iilosophv of Heluiion. He quotes me as sayin g that " abstract 

 principles are fatal to the progress of thought." I cannot 

 iind the passage. Perhaps I have overlooked it. But what 

 I have said is that, in my belief, " abstract ideas have no real 

 existence " *; that they are " simply convenient formulae of 

 classification "t ; that "philosophy has fiiiled to form satisfac- 

 tory abstract C(^nceptions of (lod "J ; and that " the Bible ofiers 

 lis no meta])hysical abstractions in its doctrine concerning God, 

 but practical facts." § I will honestly confess, however, that 

 my reverence for abstract ideas does not grow with my growth. 

 Just as, in my former paper, I insisted on a definition of 

 the words " infinite," " absolute," " unconditioned," and 



* Journal, 1883-4, u. 110. t Ihid. 



X p. 105. * !^ p. 10.0. 



