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pursued the subject with a strictly scientific mode of examination, he did 
not shrink from entering upon, and from showing the bearings of, the highest 
and the most abstruse doctrinal truths which form the foundation of our 
religion. In a meeting of this kind, it is desirable that different views 
should be put forward, with the object of bringing out any points upon 
which differences may arise, which may be cleared away by examination. 
I am afraid that, upon this occasion, I cannot offer any contribution 
towards that end, for I really do not feel competent to advance any views or 
hints with regard to the propriety or the logical force of the arguments 
which have been adduced. These arguments were thoroughly satisfactory 
to my own mind, and I have nothing to bring forward as a point on which 
differences might arise. The author’s aim seems to be to establish the exist- 
ence of an independent power, an independent will, and an independent 
thought, apart from our own selves, and from those beings Avhom we see 
around us, and whom we believe, by a natural analogy, to partake of the 
same kinds of thought and feeling as ourselves. The belief in a power inde- 
pendent of and superior to us is naturally impressed upon us by our finding 
within us two forces, of which we ourselves, if I may so speak, are composed 
— a material force, which we exert by means of our body, and a spiritual 
force, independent of and controlling the material. Hence we arrive at the 
conclusion of the existence of a Supreme Intellect, an eternal and all- 
powerful God ; because, as we feel within ourselves that we possess some 
power independent of the matter which composes our frames, and yet that 
matter does contribute and give to us a force by which we accomplish many 
ends. I shall, however, not now dwell upon differences, but try to gather 
up the sum and substance of the paper, as it has presented itself to my mind. 
To have the general scope of the paper before us may facilitate the compre- 
hension of its abstruser arguments. So we conclude by analogy that there 
is, superior to the whole material universe and to ourselves, — who, in one 
sense, form part of that universe,— some great and supreme Will, Intelli- 
gence, and Power, who is using that universe and the beings that are upon it, 
for His own great, wise, and beneficent ends. If we conclude that there is 
such a Being, we only conclude that which our own experience tells us exists, 
in a certain sense, in our own personal beings. This I understand to be the 
ground upon which the paper of this evening rests, and is the substance of 
the argument that has been drawn out with regard to the existence of a 
supreme, intelligent, and beneficent Creator ; and I think it is an argument 
which is perfectly unassailable. It is one which, as has been well pointed out, 
is entirely independent of the special discoveries of modern science, which, 
after all, only reveal the different modes in which the material forces act 
and have their influence, but do not approach, in the least degree, the source 
of that independent power which controls material things and uses material 
instruments. Though, with regard to our own being and our own persons, 
we may discovei’, with greater particularity, by science, the mode in which 
our will may move certain members of our body to perform certain acts, and 
