58 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



aspect of the truth. The error may lie in our 

 Theology, or it may lie in what we are pleased to 

 call our Science. It may be that some dogma, 

 derived by tradition from our fathers, is having 

 its hollowness betrayed by that light which some- 

 times shines upon the ways of God out of a better 

 knowledge of His works. It may be that some 

 proud and rash generalisation of the schools is 

 having its falsehood proved by the violence it does 

 to the deepest instincts of our spiritual nature, — to 



' ' Truths which wake to perish never ! 

 Which neither man nor boy, 

 Nor all that is at enmity with joy, 

 Can utterly abolish or destroy."* 



Such, for example, is the conclusion to which 

 the language of some scientific men is evidently 

 pointing, that great general Laws inexorable in 

 their operation, and Causes in endless chain of 

 invariable sequence, are tlfe governing powers in 

 Nature, and that they leave no room for any 

 special direction or providential ordering of events. 

 If this be true, it is vain to deny its bearing on 

 Religion. What, then, can be the use of prayer ? 



* Ode to Immortality from the Recollections of Early Childhood. 

 — Wordsworth. 



