226 
riginally like a huge machine,— that now goes on without the presence or 
intervention of the mind that made it.” On the contrary, it constrains us 
to believe that the Divine Mind is never absent from nature ; that everv 
f'i ’» eV< i n t ie smallest > is individuated by it,” and the recognition of 
law only requires us to believe that in every event, small or great, the 
lorces of nature are so guided and directed by the Supreme Mind as to 
give effect to His will” (see Church Quarterly Review, vol. ii. p. 26). 
± ractical atheism may concede an original creative act, but not a con- 
tmuous Divine Providence, even though acting through invariable laws, 
aim thus operating only mediately. God’s Providence preserved the three 
Hebrews in the furnace and Daniel in the den ; the same Providence truly 
™ n ?! erally ? aV f US , evei 7 lueal we Iiave eaten. in all these cases 
probably numberless laws intervened ; the greatest number, perhaps, in the 
ordinary case of our daily food. Law and Providence are in perfect concord. 
One sparrow shall not fall on the ground without our Father ” ; vet “ till 
mSru d b?M^S° ne jot or “ tutle shaI ‘ “ 
The conception is not incompatible with the doctrine of evolution. It is 
as literanytrue that God “made me” as if I had been not only the first 
man, but the primordial germ of all created things. And I perceive no 
pvpnt 7 othe F. inconsistency between this and the further belief that every 
T i , 2 } fe> th 7 lgh «°; erued b y ^variable laws, has been as com- 
7 7 A V n( J e * th e guidance of an ever-present and ever-acting Providence 
n!, 1 ™ been the immediate result of a special exertion of Divine power, 
le ic um of the authors of The Unseen Universe may, I think be 
fmr / an T scientific man without arrogance or irreverence. The greater 
f rT fi 7 and , thexnore 1 Profound his adoration of the unsearchable wisdom 
n.nnnfWl^ f may .- b0 118 u^-hh'igness to believe that he can ever 
J -n7 t7 l i i 7°u CaUSa ^ U t0 the Throne of the hTitST Cause. God is “ a 
Sitv h-iftf Hlmself - Surely a man may attribute it to his own in- 
himseff tW b 866 furtberal °?g the g° lden chaiu > rather than flatter 
r for 7 k f T rui .\ trough the links home to the beginning. And so 
seekimr ,’. h ie, i ei to cad such a persistent search after secondary causes a 
seeking after God rather than an attempt to get rid of Him. 
force or a ‘W-7 ay b t ieV ® ^ Lio , nel BeaIe > that vitality is a distinct 
invelticrafp P?' ver unknown to physics,” and that “ the more minutely we 
W thf He l? hanoniena , of Bving matter the less likely does it appear 
that the causes of these will be discovered in the domain of physics, or that 
an y vital action will be proved to be in the grasp of physical law” (Proto- 
fe ed ‘ PP- 310 343 ) ; but none the 4s will he increase The ^ power 
of his microscopes and patiently peer into those silent depths whose very 
simplicity is so awful. Or again, he may hold to the physical theory of 
life; he may overleap, with Dr. Bastian and others, the line of assumed 
demarcation between the living and the non-living, the organic and the 
inorganic ; he may even reach out, with Professor Tyndall, to the “ poten- 
tialities of the primeval mist ” ; still there is nothing even here incompatible 
with true religion and true reverence, if only he believes n God the 
^ Pt r r r> , Wh V S ° reat ° ; ’ gave His Treation^a ^lawwhich 
Saw b TnS C !!’ a T ’ “ Pr 7 erVer ’ , evcr sustains it in conformity with 
that law. God s providence is the real test. Such a concent inn J “ 
variaWe law ’ differs toto codo i rom the soulless and barbarous necessitarianism 
not they only, “Stop* » PhlI ° S ° Phy ° f S ° me wh ° dream ** if 
I contend that religion and faith arc not necessarily implicated either way 
