158 REV. CHANCELLOR LIAS, M.A., ON GERMANISM." 



Some remarks having been made by Dr. Schofield, Eev. J. Tuck- 

 well, and Mr. S. Collett, 



The Chairman said : We recognise in the Paper, not only ability, 

 thoughtfulness, learning, but also a real endeavour to be fair to that 

 great nation with whom we are unhappily at war. There is no 

 reasonable doubt as to Germany's high place in music and history. 

 To music and history should be added philosophy. Kant (the 

 German Plato) has a three-fold claim upon our gratitude by (a) his 

 ethical proof of God's existence as our moral Governor and Judge ; 

 (h) his insistence on the supreme authority of conscience ; (c) his 

 doctrine that the moral end is the production of the good will ; thus 

 rightly placing morality upon a religious basis. 



With regard to the question : " Can we describe God as ' The 

 Absolute,' ' The Infinite,' ' The Unconditioned,' without destroying 

 ' His Personality,' and propounding ' bare negations,' the reader of 

 page 143 of the Paper may perhaps be unconvinced by the argument 

 employed, or may be disposed to think that the terms are not used in 

 their usual sense. But we shall thoroughly agree with the Author's 

 masterly demolition, on page 144 of Spencer's " unthinkable " 

 argument, and with his splendid criticism of the dominant school 

 of the Germanizing Higher Critics. By undermining the faith 

 of many in the authority of the Bible, these critics prepared the way 

 for Nietzschism, which undermined the authority of Conscience, so 

 leading to the atrocities and horrors of War. 



Votes of thanks having been accorded, the meeting closed at 

 6.10 p.m. 



