68 EEY. CHANCELLOR LIAS^ M.A., ON 



Rev. Prebendary Wage, D.D. — At this late hour I should 

 not be justified in troubling the meeting with many observa- 

 tions ; I only wisb to thank Mr. Lias veiy much for his 

 paper. 



I think the gentleman who spoke last need not be afraid to let 

 the ideas expressed in the paper pass into his mind, provided, as 

 he says, that he will "filter" them. I think their substantial 

 ti"uth will be apparent to almost everyone. But the principal 

 thing that I would venture to say anything upon, in supporting 

 the paper, is the great stress that Chancellor Lias has placed 

 on the idea of God being formed from induction and not 

 from a priori reasoning. We have a great advantage on this 

 subject in the present day. We have two great sources of our 

 knowledge of God, viz., the word of God and the operations of 

 Nature ; and, if I may be allowed to say so, the only danger that 

 has arisen is from the attempt of one of those sources to act without 

 the other. As Chancellor Lias says, the assistance that has been 

 given by science in forming our ideas of God is, practically,, 

 incalculable. I will mention one point; and that is the 

 demonstration given of the unity of God. There was nothing 

 unnatural in the Greek conception of a number of different deities ; 

 but when science has demonstrated that all the forces in nature^ 

 are working in absolute unity you have scientifically established 

 that fundamental part of the Christian creed. But you have to 

 take into account the fact of revelation as a necessary part of 

 the whole subject. It is perfectly absurd, on purely scientific 

 grounds, for anyone to talk of the idea of God without taking 

 scripture and our Lord's life into consideration. They are most 

 momentous. You have got to explain them, and when you bring 

 those two things together, the phenomena of Scripture and the 

 phenomena of the Universe, you get the first step towards an 

 approximation to the idea of God. 



There is one phrase in Chancellor Lias's paper that I would 

 take exception to, and that is the one in which he speaks of 

 "that appi-oximation to the idea of God" is a hope that is held 

 out to human nature through infinite ages. The idea, of the beicg 

 of God is so vast that our minds now fall short of it in the result ; 

 but the blessed hope is held out to us that we may progress more 

 and more to something like an approximation to an idea of His 

 infinite perfections. 



