THE MEANING OP THE .^ISTHETIC IMPULSE. 



235 



St. Paul dwelt on the ignorance of cultivated men in spiritual 

 matters ; making little of the products of art and of man's device, 

 he urged the need for repentance, he spoke of coming judgment for 

 sin, and he dwelt on the fact of the Resurrection. 



Which is the soundest position to take ? 



Our lecturer deserves our thanks for his investigations, chiefly, 

 I think, for the warnings which he gives us against that philosophy 

 on which his paper is based, which (page 219) rejects the idea of God. 



The Rev. J. J. B. Coles, M.A., said : What is the value of the 

 teaching of this modern philosopher to a well -instructed Christian 

 to whom Christ is " wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and 

 redemption " ? 



" In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," and 

 to be complete in Him both here and hereafter is to be in a glorious 

 position of privilege which no human philosophy can in any way 

 add to or transcend. 



Let us test the supposed value of the teaching of creative evolution . 



In Gen. i we have God's progressive and evolutionary creative 

 action set forth. 



In Gen. ii — God's special creative and direct action in connection 

 with Love and Beauty. 



Five hundred years before Christ, Heraclitus of Ephesus 

 recognized this evolutionary method and saw that "All was in 

 motion " {ttuvtu pei). 



A thousand years before Christ, in a wise and scholarly Commen- 

 tary on the Pentateuch, we read, " If these things (in Nature) are 

 beautiful, how much more beautiful must the Author of all Beauty be?" 



Bergson and Croce, in their creative evolutionary and aesthetic 

 teachings, have not sufficient knowledge of God or of Christ to be 

 of any use in such times as the present. 



No reconstruction of the philosophy of Christianity which in any 

 way attempts to minimize the glory of the Person of Christ and His 

 propitiatory sacrifice can possibly have any attraction for one who 

 knows that in the Person and work of the Son of God all the deepest 

 problems relating to God, Man and the Universe have their only 

 true solution. 



At the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford the Dean of St. Paul's 

 asked the question, whether since the Great War and all its 



