28 



EEV. G. F. WHIDBORNE^ M.A.^ F.G.S., ON 



unity into an infinite elaboration of order ; if all things natural 

 are so arranged as to form one great ArocryLto? in which power, 

 beauty, adaptation, variety, vastness, utility, correspondence, 

 law, advance, are all in harmony, all in rhythm ; if we find 

 through all, not only signs of material harmony, but of moral 

 and beneficent good ; if we learn that even the known facts of 

 nature are not its full store, and that science like a householder 

 is still bringing forth from its treasury new marvels with a 

 hand so lavish as to prove an untold wealth behind ; then for all 

 these effects there must be an adequate cause. That cause may 

 indeed be indefinitely greater than the effect ; it cannot be less 

 than the effect ; and therefore we have in all these facts of 

 nature nothing less than a demonstration of the vast, infinitely 

 vast, intelligence, morality and beneficence of the one Creator — 

 God. 



12. And thus w^e have reached the goal of our quest. We 

 have from Nature learned, at least in some degree, to know the 

 one intelligent Originator of it all. We have found the centre, 

 the focus, the origin of nature — its Creator — God. 



7. Tlie effect of the discovery of God in Ncdiirc. 

 Here we might stop ; and with this master-key seek to 

 unlock the meaning of the varied facts of nature in detail. 

 AVe might examine how the Fact of God, brought down into 

 the purview of science, explains its intricacies and elucidates 

 its mysteries. We might seek to trace out the varied curves of 

 nature, to understand their powers and interpret their properties 

 by starting their detailed examination from the centre we have 

 found. If we did this we should be doubtless well repaid ; for, 

 if nature reveals the fact of God, the fact of God explains nature. 

 From the standpoint of the centre of any curve, its nature and 

 meaning, its character and beauty can be perceived in a way 

 that is impossible from any other point of view. 



III. The second Line of Inquiry, i.e., by Way of Knowledge 

 OF the Creator. 



1. Search for hnoivledge of the CrecUor from facts external to 



Nature. 



But though we have thus reached the end of the first stage 

 of our inquiry ; though from the facts of nature we have thus 

 " felt after " nature's God, and discovered from these His works 

 the dimly grand perspective of the fact of their Creator, to stop 

 at this would be assuredly to stop too soon. Eather, we may 



