THE ONE IN THE MANY^ AND THE MANY IN THE ONE. 129 



Philosophy has had its uses in the past, much more than in the 

 present day ; when the worldly man, in this materialistic age, 

 admires the man of action rather than the dreamy speculative 

 philosopher ; and the earnest spiritually-minded man finds far 

 better guidance in revealed Scripture than in any system of 

 philosophy. 



Our author tells us how easily a philosopher may involve himself 

 in contradictions (see p. 124). St. Paul warns us against philosophy, 

 linking it with vain deceits (Col. ii, 8). Although a philosophic wise 

 man himself, he admonishes his hearers of the dangerous efiects 

 of mere worldly wisdom (Rom. i, 22 : i Cor. i, 22, etc.). 



It is recorded that in the Early Christian days when numbers 

 joined the Church, that even philosophers were converted, as if 

 they were the most difficult of all to be reached. At the present 

 •day the Mahomedans, who have much truth derived from the 

 Bible, are most inaccessible, being satisfied with what they 

 have : another hindrance is their great tendency to disputa- 

 tions. Philo, the Jew, a believer in revelation, was correct when he 

 wrote : The mind that is to be led forth and set at liberty must be 

 withdrawn from . . . sophistical reasonings and from plausible 

 arguments." 



The Professor has done good service by directing our attention 

 to this intricate subject. 



At the conclusion of the discussion the Chairman proposed a 

 hearty vote of thanks to Professor Langhorne Orchard for his 

 carefully thought out paper : this was carried by acclamation. 



Miss Maynard : It has been said that all philosophers since the 

 time of Plato look at the universe through his eyes, and I suppose 

 that is in the main true. He has been quoted to-day as excluding 



unworthy " ideas from the Divine Mind, but our Lecturer appears 

 to take the opposite view, and I should be very glad of a little 

 further explanation. It seems that Professor Orchard embraces 

 all things in the One, who is God. In the old days the unworthy " 

 ideas are spoken of as " hair, mud, filth," but to the Christian they 

 also comprise the spiritual evils, illusion, wrong-doing, sin. If 

 these ideas are in the Mind of God, we have Pantheism, and 

 Pantheism is not Christianity. That evil is, as Browning says, 



a shadow implying light, a silence implying sound," may be 



K 2 



