47 
only remark I have to make upon this is, that our belief in 
the creative power of God is not affected by it in the slightest 
degree. No one would say that because man has no creative 
power, therefore God has none. 
5. Again, Dr. Tyndall says, in the same address, that the 
principle of conservation of energy in nature “ leaves no nook 
or crevice for spontaneity to mingle with the necessary play 
of natural force/'’ Holding, as he does, that man can dis- 
tribute force — that any one (to take his own example) can 
raise his arm whenever he chooses — he cannot but admit that 
maids will, at all events, is, or may be, concerned in the dis- 
tribution of force. Does he mean, then, to deny to God a 
power which he concedes to man? Very possibly he does. 
For in so far as he has explained himself on the subject of the 
Deity, he appears to deny to Him personality, and therefore 
will. But we must take leave to differ with Dr. Tyndall in 
this matter until he offers some better proof than I, for one, 
have been able to find in his writings. Perhaps, however, 
there is a more recondite meaning in his assertion that there 
is no room for spontaneity in the play of natural force. He 
asserts that the animal body, including that of man, is a mere 
machine, and that the actions which seem to us spontaneous 
are really the result of movements in the brain produced by 
a physical necessity. This view has been satisfactorily dis- 
proved by many, and among them by the President of Yale 
College, in his paper already alluded to. But the only thing 
that need be said about it now is, that the arguments by 
which Dr. Tyndall supports it are altogether founded on 
material considerations, and lie in a field that is quite apart 
from the world of pure spirit, nor can they affect our views 
with regard to it one way or the other. It is true that 
Dr. Tyndall rejects the idea that there can be such a thing 
as pure spirit. “ Divorced from matter,” he says, in his 
Belfast Address, “ where is life to be found ? Whatever our 
faith may say, our knowledge shows them to be indissolubly 
joined.” ( Belfast Address , page 54, 1st ed.) But what is 
this “ knowledge” which he says shows life to be indissolubly 
joined to matter ? It is simply ignorance. All that can be 
said is that our senses do not give evidence of life not joined 
to matter. And this is ignorance, not knowledge. Believers 
in Revelation, however, have evidence of it in abundance, but 
of another kind. And whatever Dr. Tyndall may think, there 
may be more things in heaven at least, if not on earth, which 
are not dreamed of even in his philosophy. Christians, who 
hold that God is a spirit, can see nothing in “the play of 
natural force ” to militate against the hypothesis of divine 
