128 
intelligence, each moment of fresh contact would also give a proportionately 
new knowledge of its environment. Here we see that, although this is a 
subject beneath us and therefore easier of comprehension, it is, at the same 
time, one which is difficult to grasp ; for even this is almost, perhaps quite, 
beyond the limits of our comprehension. We can understand much better 
the illustration of the cup and the ocean than that of the plant, for, in the 
latter, besides the physical, there is a chemical and vital process. Lord 
Bacon has suggested that there is some analogy between the trust and 
attachment of a dog to its master and the faith and love which exist in 
the case of man towards God. Suppose we take these two last illustrations 
together, and say that our knowledge of God is the consciousness of the 
fuller life given us by God as the latter grows up into contact with the 
Divine life around it, and that the relation between us and God is somewhat 
like that between the dog and its master, that is, between a dependent 
being and somebody above it trusted and loved. If there be any real like- 
ness between these things, then, as we cannot with our limited faculties 
thoroughly understand the lower relation between the plant and its environ- 
ment, we see at once, with regard to that higher relation, that it is a thing 
entirely beyond our comprehension — a thing which we all instinctively feel 
and are certain of, but of which anything like mathematical proof would 
be impossible. A thing may be true, and we may know it to be true, but 
we may at the same time see, from the nature of the case, that our know- 
ledge is not capable of mathematical demonstration. Knowledge is, in fact 
such a complex and mysterious relation, that it is difficult to understand how 
it comes about in the simplest things ; but in regard to higher spheres the 
relation is so much more complex, that it would be impossible to explain 
it in the sense in which Mr. Spencer seems to think we ought to explain 
our knowledge of God. Let us take another instance, for we are almost 
forced to use analogies to justify our acceptance of anything which we 
account to be reasonable. We have just heard of the poor woman in her 
cottage, and of how she knows God, or of how she thinks she knows Him, and 
seems to live by that knowledge ; now, in case any one should come to her 
and say it is all a mistake, I have tried to show you that it would be impos- 
ible to fully analyse her faith, and that, therefore, we can only go to another 
analogy from which we may judge as to whether it is reasonable or not. The 
analogy given to us in the Bible is much higher than any I have mentioned. 
I have spoken of a plant, and an animal ; but our relation to God, revealed 
to us by J esus Christ, is of a far nobler character, for it is the relation 
of a child to its parent. Consider the condition of a newly-born child as 
it hangs on its mother’s breast : in that case we know that the infant 
can have but an infinitesimal knowledge of its mother. It has but a 
slight and limited material contact as it hangs there ; but, as the child grows, 
its perceptions and faculties begin to be evolved and developed, until it has 
the knowledge which a child eventually obtains of its parent. Now, if the 
Bible be true, and God is truly our Father, we, men and women, though 
His children, cannot expect to grow up even to such g knowledge of Him 
