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they do not reside in them ; they have been impressed on them." The object 

 of all this is to shut out God from the world, and to assert that there is no 

 God. Now, we face all this rightly when we say, " We will not allow you to 

 assume that there is no force you have not investigated until you account for 

 the origin of the germ or particle, for the genesis of what is behind and 

 beyond the germ." A sufficient answer to all these scientific speculations is 

 that they are assumptions which are based on nescience, and if a man asks 

 " How can God interfere in matters that are going on in the world ? " my 

 answer is " When I am as great as God, and as wise and infinite as He ; 

 when I have entered into the treasure-house of His wisdom, and grasped His 

 infinitude, I will tell you what are the resources of which the Omnipotent 

 avails Himself in order to interfere." At the same time, T think you will 

 agree with me that, taking Professor Tyndall on his own ground, he has 

 failed to prove anything that will tend to establish the conclusions he has 

 drawn. 



Mr. J. E. Howard. — As one who has been engaged in chemical inves- 

 tigations for the last forty-five years, I desire to say a few words. I 

 am a believer in the efficacy of prayer, and am glad to have heard the 

 remarks which have been made upon this side of the question from all parts 

 of the room. I agree with the last speaker, that the subject has not been 

 entirely probed to the bottom, and that some of the objections of men of 

 science to the assertions of religious men, that prayer is answered, have not 

 been altogether met. I do not know that they could be met except in this 

 way ; that the deeper the researches of science, the more fully we enter upon 

 the investigation of natural laws, the more shall we become convinced of our 

 own ignorance. Before becoming wise a man must be convinced, in a certain 

 sense, that he is a fool ; or at all events, that as the boundaries of our know- 

 ledge become extended, they but reveal the vast outlying space of our 

 ignorance. I can see no difficulty in the question presented to us on this 

 occasion ; it may be because I view the whole subject ah initio from a 

 different stand-point to that taken by some men of science. I do not believe 

 in a Being who has imposed laws upon atoms, in such sense that the atoms 

 thus endued with what we call laws should be more powerful than the Law- 

 giver himself. If we think, as we must think, upon this subject, we find 

 arising behind us the power of the Infinite, which has been so well described 

 by Sir Isaac Newton in his declaration of faith in the omnipresence of God 

 as the Being who governs all things, not as a soul of the world, but as Lord 

 of the Universe. I cannot repeat that declaration without book ; but 

 my view of the omnipresence and power of God is the same as Newton's ; 

 and that, I assert, rises above and beyond, and far outweighs all consider- 

 ations about laws, and the mode in which it may please God to act upon 

 matter. If God be pleased to answer prayer, there is nothing that I know of 

 in the constitution of matter which should prevent His doing so. It must 

 surely be as easy for God to act upon matter, as it is for me to crumple up the 

 piece of paper I hold in my hand. That God can answer prayer I am con- 

 vinced. How he does it is another question which remains to be investigated. 



