I 



TWO PA.THS, ONE GOAL. 99 



Ood, whose increasing purpose in the whole grows ever clearer 

 as the clouds of ignorance or error are rolled back. 



Purpose. 



The position here assumed in behalf of Theism against her 

 many assailants is that Purpose links the three essential data 

 of existence, the Ego, External Nature, and God. The precise 

 meaning of the term must be considered before one can expect 

 ■opponents even to listen to the line of argument. 



Definition. 



Purpose is a better term for such a discussion than Design, 

 though the latter is an honoured one in Christian apologetics. 

 Design comes from an old French word, signifying a drcming or 

 a representation made with pencil, and has been much associated 

 with architecture, though in some of its later and derivative 

 uses it is equivalent to purpose. It was a term that lent 

 itself very naturally to the older views of Divine Purpose, and 

 described even better than Purpose what the teachers of earlier 

 times wished to convey. Plan and Purpose were almost less in 

 their minds than immediate designs, methods, contrivances for 

 certain ends. 



Purpose is a wider term as to its primary meaning, " a thing 

 proposed or intended," an object to be kept in view or sub- 

 served in any course of action, an intended or desired effect. 

 This wider term fits more accurately the wider view of Nature 

 and its origin, formation, and working processes than the older 

 views of Paley and the writers of the Bridgeivater Treatises 

 could possibly entertain. 



Character of the Cosmic Purpose. 



The ground may be cleared at once by two statements as to 

 the purpose in question. In the first place the character of the 

 purpose can only be of a benevolent nature. Whether with 

 our finite minds we can or cannot recognise benevolence at 

 all the stages of the long-drawn drama of organic existence, it 

 is mere waste of time to discuss any other than a benevolent 

 purpose of a non-human or Divine Mind. In the second place 

 the purpose in question is one, not of methods and details by 

 which ends aie arrived at, but of Intention. It is to be hoped 

 that thus we may avoid much misunderstanding. 



Purpose, then, or Intention is the metaphysical warp and woof 

 of the time-vesture of Nature, or that part of a vast system 



