10 THE LIGHT OF DAT 



that we have commonly called the supernatural. 

 The latest considerable attempt in this direction is 

 furnished by the work of Professor Henry Drum- 

 mond on " Natural Law in the Spiritual World," a 

 work which undertakes to demonstrate the natural- 

 ness of the supernatural, or the oneness of religion 

 and biology. 



Butler, in his "Analogy," says that there is no 

 " absurdity in supposing that there may be beings 

 in the universe whose capacity and knowledge and 

 views may be so extensive as that the whole Chris- 

 tian dispensation may to them appear natural ; that 

 is, analogous or conformable to God's dealings with 

 other parts of his creation ; as natural as the visible 

 known course of things appear to us." 



Such a being seems actually to have appeared in 

 the person of this Scotch professor. The " whole 

 Christian dispensation " is to him little more than 

 a question of experimental science ; the conversion 

 of Paul is as natural and explicable a process to 

 him as the hatching of an egg or the sprouting of a 

 kernel of corn. " Eeligion," he says, " is no di- 

 sheveled mass of aspiration, prayer, and faith. There 

 is no more mystery in religion as to its process than 

 in biology." The question of a future life is only a 

 biological problem to him. He gives physiological 

 tests by which a man may surely know whether or 

 not he is a true Christian. The characteristics of 

 life in the organic world, he argues, are four : namely, 

 assimilation, waste, reproduction, and spontaneous 

 action ; the characteristics in the Christian world are 



