The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-11-23

The THEIsTIC ARGUMENT AS AFFECTED BY RE.
CENT THEORIES A course of Lectures deliv
cred at the Lowell Institute in Boston By
Lewis Diman, D. D., late Professor of History
and Political Economy in Brown University
Boston: Houghton Milf n & Co. 1881 PIP.
500.
This work is introduced by Prof George P.
Fisher of Yale. Prof Dman died, after brief
illness, on the Sd of February, 1sS1-and his
death is to be lamented like that of the gifted
Professor Murray of Johns Hopkins University
While preparing for the ministry, he spent two
years in Germany, where he numbered among
his instructors Julius Muller and Rothe, Erd.
mann, Ulrici, and Trendelenburg, his time be-
ing chiefly devoted to the study of Kant. When
he was invited to deliver the present course OIL
lectures. as we are informed by Prof Fisher he
examined afresh the writings of Mill, Spencer
Huxley, Darwin, Tyndall, and did not omit tc
study with especial attention the ablest of the
latest writers on "Theism," such as Janet and
Flint.
There are twelve lectures, the subjects being
Present Aspects of the oblem, The Rela.
tivity of knowledge" " Cause and Force" 1.-The
Argument from Order" THE Argument from
Design" Evolution and Final Cause" Imma
nent Finality, Conscience and a Moral Order. -
&C.
Few works on this great and at the present
time, most important subject, have issued from
the press in recent years which have been so
highly commended as that of our author. 1t
has attracted wide attention. and is regarded as
most valuable contribution to the deeper phil
osophical studies of the present day Already
a second edition has been called for.
We regard the " theistic" question as the fun
damental discussion of this generation-and its
final settlement, as perhaps, the closing con.
troversy between the Christian Church and its
assailants. We, therefore, welco@e work of
this sort with peculiar pleasure
The British Quarterly Review, in noticing it.,
remarks:
The advocates of all shades of Pantheism.
in Identifying God and Nature, must be differ
emily dealt with, and in the lectures on I'm.
manent Flnallty we have forcible and ad-
mirable exposure of the weakness of the pan
theistic position, and a vindication from the
ground of thought and analogy of the legiti-
macy, and indeed the necessity, of applying to
our differences regarding natural phenomena the
same kind of reasoning which we apply in ex
PLANTATION of the expression of human thought
anu Will III acts. Thereafter Professor Dlman
takes us up to higher sphere, and in discus
sion on hrst Conscience and Moral Order,
and then on History and Moral Purpose he
vindicates the ways of God to man. The clos
ing lectures on Personality and the Infinite. ;
The Alternative Theories, and The differences
from Theism, are worthy of the best parts of the
book. AS the upshot the author has succeeded
in making it clear that recent science impels us
to a point where the necessity of admitting the
existence of God is Irresistible. that ito rros,
elevated conceptions and widest cancellations
render 1t necessary to accept the presence and
constant efficient energy of God as realities. and
that the modes of operation which science dis
closes are in harmony with the fundamental
principles and postulates of Christianity"