247 
netism, Chemical Affinity and Motion are now considered 
different forms of the same force ; and the opinion is rapidly 
gaining ground that Life, or vital force, is only another phase 
of the same power. Possibly the great mystery of Life may 
thus be solved, but whether it be or not, a time faith in 
Science admits no limit to its search for Truth.” 
16. We have the open avowal of anti-theistic opinions, and 
frequently the quiet assumption that the question has been 
settled by the verdict of a jury of experts. No longer is anti- 
Theism shrouded in scientific pamphlets or foreign languages, 
but it pervades periodicals, school-books, and general litera- 
ture. 
17. At the Munich meeting of the German Association for 
the Promotion of Science, Professor Haeckel is stated to have 
said that there is no plan of creation but “ the accidental 
coincidence of mechanical causes and that the theory of the 
supernatural origin of life is “ an old irrational myth ”; and 
that carbon, “in its complicated combination with other 
elements, causes the peculiar physiological properties of or- 
ganic compounds.”* 
18. I maintain that the true lesson taught by modern 
science is the very reverse of all this ; that the laws of force, 
and of its conservation, and the ascertained limits of natural 
things, do actually bring the Divine Artificer nearer to our 
apprehensions than before. 
I. Limits disclosed by Science. 
19. Science has its limits. In its study we are carried on 
by our preceptors until we come to the acknowledged unknown. 
They then leave off, saying only to us that all beyond is 
unknowable ; they stand still and point oat to us the 
unpassed barrier. But instead of acquiescing in the ap- 
parently inevitable, or seeking if haply other sources of know- 
ledge may exist, they invent a hypothesis of materialism, and 
add it to their philosophy, as though it were part of their 
discoveries. The Theist, arriving before the same veil, (not to 
be lifted by Science,) feeling, like his brother inquirer, irre- 
pressible desire to penetrate the mystery of being, looks into 
his own experience of cause and effect, and, with the con- 
currence of the majority of mankind, accepts the deliverance 
expressed by Hooker, — “Only thus much is discerned, that 
the natural generation and process of all things received 
order of proceeding from the settled stability of divine under- 
standing.” 
* Nature, October 4, 1877. Meeting, September 17. 
