259 
may prove the existence of something beyond matter and 
behind force, which for the present we call law, yet of the 
primitive and fundamental cause of this we know nothing. 
I accept the statement, and admit that we cannot “ by 
searching find out God” ; yet, in the language of the same 
record, I would affirm that He is “not far from every one of 
us,” — in the power of our own apprehensions as we stand 
before the phenomena. Mr. Atkinson, in one of those letters, 
recorded in the Autobiography of Miss Martin eau, which were so 
influential in promoting her avowal of atheism, — after stating 
that of the First Cause we know absolutely nothing, — adds the 
remarkable admission, “Wejudgeitto be something positive; 
to so much the nature of the mind compels assent ; but we do 
not know what this positive something is in itself, in its absolute 
and real being and presence. We must rest content to take 
it as we find it, and suppose it inherently capable of passing 
or flowing into all those effects exhibited throughout nature.” 
What is this in effect but saying with Aratus, — quoted by 
St. Paul, — “ God that made the world and all things therein, 
seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, for in Him we 
live and move and have our being”? 
62. Whilst atheism seeks to displace the image, it would leave 
the shrine vacant, and the mind involuntarily fills the void. I 
remember seeing in the town of Vire the ruins of a Protestant 
church destroyed by the mob a century and half ago, and on 
the highest fragment, beyond the reach of the destroyers, 
there yet flashed out in the sunshine the golden letters of the 
first commandment, “ Thou shalt have no other God but me! ” 
In like manner does nature, in spite of all destructive criticism, 
ever lift aloft her ineffaceable testimony for God. 
63. I briefly sum up by saying that it is established, and 
indeed admitted, that matter and force, mind and life, all 
exist in relation to something else. They are not alone in the 
world. Something more than mere being must be attributed 
to each of them. If we call the limiting power law, or if we 
cloke it under the term of necessity, either of these requii'es 
the existence also of something besides. We cannot rest 
without some conception concerning this higher power ; no 
one has yet succeeded in offering any reasonable hypothesis 
concerning it save that of Theism ; we are therefore driven to 
the acknowledgment — 
“ A God ! all nature cries aloud ! ” 
64. I crave to be allowed to add the observation that the 
pursuit of Theism is eminently remunerative. Light is pro- 
