The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-02-18

beyond the domain of science, no matter
how fer or how long her discoveries con-
tinue, nor how often the assumed super
natural" has to retreat to ground yet I'M
explored.
To me the above seems to be your
meaning; but the reader will readily see
that in the light of such ideas the ''super.
natural" becomes simply the unknown,
or that which has not yet been explored,
and which really is not supernatural"
after all, but only realm of the infinite
natural as yet unfathomed- realm, not
of the unknowsble," but of the as yet
unknown, though movable.
How wide of the mark, therefore, is
your assertion that 1, in affirming a pro-
gress in the religious thought of the
world that would in the near future COM
pei recast of the worlds theology, was
apparently obljvious of the fact that the
trend of theology as it approximates
a scientific basis, is in the direction Of
broadening out of the natural" SO as to
involve ana include what we now term
the Supernatural" was not oblivious
of the trend" but wide awake thereto;
and that is why wrote about it, and why
1 predicted that in the near future we
were to have a theology that would be,
mot only in agreement with science, but
itself science" SO as to "be in accord
both with the souls intuitions and with
what we otherwise know of the nature of
things"
I was not at all oblivious of the fact,
as every one can see, who will take the
trouble to read my article, that there are
advances in theology; for in affirming
that mo widely accepted theology is as
yet scientific" the implication is plain
that there may be. nevertheless, schools
in theology that are progressive and hope
full in the way Of becoming sufficiently
scientific to accept the truth that, to infin-
ity, Being is one, and not two-one natu-
raj whole-and that the undiscovered is
just as natural as the discovered; that the
assumed Supernatural" as it retreats
before the conquering advance of science,
leaves nothing bnt natural ground be.
hind it.
"The trend of the theology" take it,
however, is not so nightly and so clearly
in this direction as to make it no mans
worth while to urge his fellowmen to
thought, and to counsel progress; not SO
great as to justify the charge of obliv-
iousness to the tendency of theological
thought, on the part of one who ventures
to make special effort in behalf Of the
ology that shall be according to nature
and life, and who dares predict the speedy
advent of a theology that has its basis in
the nature of things.
1 am not oblivious of this victorious
march of science and this ignominous re
treat of the popular theology, and am not
therefore committed to useless and
foolish task in contending for new and
scientific theology theology that shall
own the infinite soul as the life and the
love and the power and the mind natu-
rally through all and over all and in us all;
the One, naturally of whom and through
whom and unto whom are all things; the
One who naturally msnitests himself as
the life in all being, and who naturally
reveals himself to the soul, both through
the symbolism OF the objective universe
and through the assertion of his presence
within. j. MERRIFIELD.