The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1882-07-07


liered"-[2d Timothy, 1-l2.
knowledge and faith are tho two
chief topics which concern the human
soul, They are the fortresses which
have been successfully stormed, taken
retaken; and no sooner does tho shon
of victory die away than. the contest i
renewed. Universal skcpticism under
mines all knowledge; positivism, ma
terialism, undermine all faith, all rev
elation, all supernatural religion.
Ii we may not decide the contest W,
can survey it and note the point,
which are weak or strong. In so do
ing shall recall many things made ia
miliar, in the class room, to the senior
class. But as l now address them fol
the last time they will welcome every
reminder of the college lie which car
be theirs 10 more. Peculiar in its ex
r~-;-- se-, ~,~~t~i :.- 81 a;..;,4i;.~, -
cred in its memories, these four years
now closing constitute a unique por.
ton of life and will stand out in rich
and glowing colors through all the fu.
tnre.
r. Our first question is tho certainty Of
knowledge.
Our second, the nature and ground
of faith.
Our third, their relation TO an eff.
cient christian manhood.
With regard TO the first, the certainty
of knowledge, we affirm there are
some things which man knows, which
he cannot allow to be question. The
old Cartesian motto "cogito ergo sum-
l think, therefore, am, cannot be as.
sailed. 1t has we'll been said that be
who denies it proves 1t, for if he did
not exist he would have 10 power of
denial. 1t is an intuition which being
direct knowledge does not admit OF
reasoning. There is large and rich
fountain of such truths. They lie at
the foundation of knowledge. They
are the sllid granite blocks upon
which we build up our intellectual be-
Ing. They are the automatic IL" ,Lo of
m n'athomatioai science. They arc those
nececessary truths the opposiies of
which are not even thinkable. Some
OF them are moral truths. That benev-
olence is right, that malice and fraud
are wrong is as clea.ly known by one
as another. They are as clearly
known as the objects of sense. They
are tinths which cannot be denied
without abnegating reason.
Ii is then the very nature of the soul
TO know. 1t is in the midst of world
OF wonders, of ineXhaustable objects of
knowledge. Some of them, needful
Tor the government of life, it knows
very clearly; some of them it wins by
labor and care and some are still TOO
remote to be reached at present. II is
to be confessed that it has not made the
last analysis Of any subject so as TO know
all its relations to the universe. Bnt the
knows itself as thinking being aud it
knows truth as eternal. This soul
knows itself as distinct from the uni
verse. Ii knows its own freedom and
personality and asserts it every time it
eavo ] ohoos~ T. I--s5- -
But there are some texts books and
schools of philosophy, and some preach.
ers in the sacred desk, who would per-
suade you that man knows and can
know nothing with certainty: or in
other words that his intellectual treas
ures have no substantive value and are
merely phenomenal to himself. To |
some higher intelligence, if there be |
any, they may be even incomprehensi-
BILE and our truths of mathematics NAV
all be mere shams to them. That |
to them as it is true TO us. The posi-
ton taken is briefly this: What is cal.
led knowledge is simply our apprehon-
sion OF tho objects of thought. The
mind takes things as they appear to it.
70 another order of mind the same
thing may appear in some totally diff
ferent light. We know only appearan-
ces, phenomena, not "things as they
are" We cannot know, therefore,
that anything really exists. Whether
our faculties have any true relation to
any objective reality, or whether
there be any such thing as an objective
reality, is wholly beyond the power of
man to know. We can therefore
know nothing of God, il there be
God. The finite can have nothing to
do with the infinite, the related
with the unrelated and the absolute.
IT revelation be supposed il cannot be
known as true and real. This is scien-
tific agnosticism. The materialistic and
skeptical school of the present day
boasts of this as the new light that has
come into the world 10 dawn on our
darkness and lend us its aid. 1t is
maintained, with more or less of reti-
cence and caution by all that wing of
evolutionists who only admit an Inf
mite Somewhat, an absolute Being, but
solemnly conduct him beyond the lin
its of protoplasm and leave Him there
to roast or freeze as may befall Him.
The question which we have to discuss
Is this: Has agnosticism, or the denial
of the validity of human knowledge.
any scientific ground TO stand upon?l
Taking any theory of evolution as true.
does IL fairly lead to'agnosticism?
We absolutely deny it. Admitting
their premises, still this conclusion
cannot be reached. Admit all that
Darwin, Huxley, Hoeschel, have ad-
vanced aud there can be seen no reason
why the universe evolved should be
one OF lalsehood, deception and chaos
There is no conceivable reason why
one part should come out SO ipcongru-
ons TO another, that one order of intel.
ligent beings, the most highly deyelop-
ed and crowned with ultimate periec-
tion, should have absolutely nothing in
The region of thought in consonance
win another order, reaching also its
ultimate good. For evolution postu.
lates certain determinate essence in
matter, toward all that which is to be.
Huxley saw in the faint nebulous eth
er "the promise aud potency of lite"
and all existing things and thinghs
that shall exist. Then within itself
here must be supposed a self directive
power toward specific results. And
lhese results arc SO orderly, 80 intelli-
gible that men have, always designated
Tho totality of things by some term sig
nifying noble, beautiful, harmonious
whole, universe, kosmos, the zen
tdi pan" of the Eeatics, the "fo pan"
)f Plato.
Now adopt for this determinate es-
'ence OF matter whatever terms agnos-
iciem mag chaaoa ola an ~ a.. .