245 
45. I submit that the facts thus reviewed indicate the pro- 
gressive law of a Law-giver, enacted from a beginning and 
towards an end. There is nothing in them to favour the 
heathen hypothesis of God in nature, as against the Christian 
hypothesis of the God of nature. I claim a right, in the face of 
all the facts, to the doctrine of the personality of a Governor, 
“ not as the soul of the world, but as the Lord of the uni- 
verse”;* who, in the further language of Newton, acts as 
"perceiving and governing all things by His essential presence, 
and constantly co-operating with all things, according to fixed 
laws, as the foundation and cause of all nature, except when it 
is good to act otherwise.” 
46. It may be considered that the result of our inquiry is of 
too negative a character to be worth the pains of the pursuit. 
But, on the contrary, I would urge that, if as each new philo- 
sophical hypothesis arises, we can show that it offers no 
obstacles to the maintenance of our most cherished beliefs ; if 
we can step into the arena of science and say, We too have a 
theory grounded on your facts, at least not inconsistent with 
them, and equal in probability to any other, — we have secured a 
hearing. And if, when the way is thus cleared, we can submit 
to the understanding of the man of science facts from another 
department of inquiry, the historical, purporting to embody a 
message from the Divine Governor, awakening or evolving an 
echo in the depths of our own consciousness, we may help to 
promote fruitful moral action and lasting mental peace. 
47. It remains that I should briefly suggest the accordance 
between the conclusions thus derived from natural science, and 
the testimony of Scripture. We have seen that the order and 
correspondence of created things declare antecedent law, the 
archetype of which must be in the mind of God. The Bible 
plainly proclaims a beginning, reveals a Creator acting by law 
throughout the ages towards an end. It unfolds to us the 
mind of' God, “ before the world was,”f — at the creation, ;[ — 
during its course, § — and after its close. || The evolution found 
therein is that of this divine purpose and plan. Along both 
lines of knowledge we are in One presence. We consider the 
twofold revelation, and find that the results which are being 
evolved on the stage of the earth, during the unrolling of the 
map of Time, were, in purpose and plan, arranged in eternal 
counsels. Are we not then ready to utter in the halls of 
# Newton. 
t John xvii. 5, and numerous parallels. 
X Inter alia, Gen. i. 1 ; John i. 1-3 ; Heb. i. 10 ; Rom. i. 20. 
§ Ps. cxix. 90, 91. || 2 Pet. iii. 7. 
