Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-25

| seen, mas more meanings than one, And
every word which offers choice OF mean.
lngs tempts the reasoner into the fallacy oi
| ambiguity. Sometimes the word "knowl-
edge means apprehension. Sometimes il
means comprehension. To apprehend is to
know something about fact; to compre-
hend is to know everything about it. The
unknowable, then, may be that which is
| partially unknown, and which we cannot
know fully or adequately; or it may mean
that which is wholly unknown, of which we
cannot catch the glimmer of an idea.
The true meaning of the word knowledge
may be emphasized by illustration. Geome-
try IS unknowable to a cow. A blade of grass
is unknowable to man. In the first case
the word means apprehension; in the second
case it means comprehension. A COW can
not catch the taintest glimmer of the truth
that the square described on the hypothe-
muse OF right-angled triangle is equal to
the sum of the squares described on the
other two sides. That statement is true,
| and capable of demonstration-but not to
the cow. The cow would be very much
mistaken who should deny that any truth
exists which is outside the boundaries OF
bovine consciousness. To cow geometry is
unknowable.
THE OTHER SENSE.
To man, however, a blade of grass is
unknowable in quite a different way. We
can know something about the BLADE OF
grass; as that it is green, and long, and fiat,
and marked in this way and that, and has
such and such conditions of growth. But
we cannot know everything about it.
We come back now to the agnostic assertion:
God is unknowable. Does that mean in the
sense of apprehension, or in the sense of COM
prehension? For if it means that we cannot
M fhrrer hnrr C11 NIoN
can know nothing adequate about Him, then
agnosticsm is simply religion. using unfamiliar
language. This agnOstic assertion peryades
the most religious book which our race has
written-the Bible. 'Canst thou by searching
find out GodT' asks Job and takes for granted
that nobody can answer yes. Verify, thou art
God that hidest thyself." says Isaiah.
Clouds and darkness are round about Him."
We have no need to 60 to the reviews to learn
that; it is set down in the old psalms. God is
indeed unknowable and we are all agnostics
if that is what the word means.
CAN WE KNOW ANYTHING?
But if the agnostic assertion is taken by any
body to imply that we cannot know anything
about God, we call to witness Mr.. Herbert
Spencer, the foremost teacher in this genera
tion of the doctrine of the unknowableness of
God. Mr.. Spencer will not say that we cannot
know anything about God. Indeed, what he
does say is something quite different from that.
Amid all the mysteries, which become the
most mysterious the more they are thought
about, there will remain (even after man has
reached his highest growth, and knows all that
science and reason can possibly teach him) the
one absolute certain that he is ever i'll the
presence of an Infinite and Eternal Energy
from which all things proceed"
Mr.. spencer. then, who knows a hundred
times better than we do what the difficulties
are at which we have limited, which lie in the
path to the knowledge of God. is absolutely
-, 49, f1Oc hxNT IN6 IL
that God is, and that He is Infinite" and 'Eter-
nal" and that He is the Energy frOm which
all things proceed" We may apply them to
God, with the sanction of agnosticism, the
name by which He is called in the Old Testa-
ment. We may call Him Jehovah, meaning. as
Matthew Arnold reminds US, the Eternal. In
deed, we may take Mr.. John Fiske for our
guide, the disciple of Mr.. Spencer, and the fore
most teacher in this country of the unknow-
ableness of God, and we may assert with him
that God may be described as Christ described
Him, saying, God is spirit"
WHAT MATTERS IT, THEN?
What, then. is it which agnosticism main
tains against religion in its denial that God is
movable? Against true religion, nothing
whatever. Against true religion. no more than
he maintains who denies that there will be
actual golden pavements along the streets Of
the celestial country. Century by century man
has been learning higher and worthier truths
about God. Not that God has changed, but
that man has grown more able to appreciate
the truth about God. The play of HHamlet"
does not change, which the small boy goes to
sleep over, but by and by in manhood learns to
understand. 1t IS that the boy has grown to be
a man that makes the difference. All truth is
conditioned by the mind of the thinker.
Age by age man has been growing, and so
getting more able to understand God. In the
old days it used to be thought that God was
but great, supernatural man. with all mans
passions. even with mans sins. Gradually, as
the race grew out of childhood, the childish
ideas of God were put away, just as with our
own selves in our own experience. Presently
God was no longer thought of as physical,
though physical language still continued of me-
cessity to be used. To-day we know that God
is spirit. We think of Him in measures taken
from the mind and soul of the worthiest man.
He is the infinitely wise. infinitely righteous
and just the Supreme Being.
MESSAGE OF AGNosTICIsM.
Now comes agnosticism, the characteristic
philosophy of our generation to uplift the idea
of God still higher. The message of agnosti-
cism is that even our idea of God in terms of
mind and soul is still inadequate, still only
symbolcal. A symbolical conception is such
as this: We never really think in any adequate
way of the round earth; the earth is so great
that we cannot really figure it to our minds
nobody can form an adequate idea of the earth;
when we think of the earth, we think of it in
symbol, we think of map or globe. Still
less can we conceive of God as He really is.
There is difference, such as there is between
a globe and the globe, between our idea of God
and God.
To saw that God is. and that He is infinite
and absolute, and that He is the one su-
premely wise, self-determining and righteous
spiritual Being, is true conception OF God as
far as 1t goes. just as globe is true image or
the earth. There are, of course, the difficulties
in the way of which we spoke. But nobody
need assert that the difficulties exist any
where outside of our own minds. If try to
read page ten feet away, the page IS only .
great blur, but the blur is not upon the page.
1t is in the eye. What the blur means is that
we are getting beyond the limit OF seeing.
What the intellectual confusion means is that
we are getting beyond the limit OF thinking.
But the possibilities of thought are not identi-
cal or co-extensiye with the possibilities OF
things 1.-The land" as Dante sald, docs not
stop where the water hides it from our sight"
Into the justice sempiternal
The power of vision that your world receives
AS eye into the ocean penetrates;
Which, though It see the bottom near the shore,
Uponthe deep perceyes 1t not. and yet
'Tis there, but it is hidden by the depth,
CERTAINLY BUT NOT ADEQUATELY.
We do know God with absolute certainty,
but not adequately. We speak Of Him in
terms and figures which we take from human
life, and must so speak and think because we
have no better words in human language; ana
all that we say Of God touches the truth about
Him which lies not between our affirmation and
lower, but between our affirmation
and something higher. God is indeed a Per-
sonal Being, but in sense which includes ali
that we can conceive of personality and goes
beyond. God knows and wills
God rules and loves, but in a sense which i'm,
cludes all our. worthiest ideals of knowledge
and will. Of love and justice, and multiplies
them by infinIty.
This is the summing up of the whole matter.
So far as agnos ticsm asserts simply the uu-
OF God, we go along with IL. 1t
Is wise and and helpful teacher. The HIGHEST
which we make concerning God
are true. Intuition and induction have not de-
,eived US. But they are only annrehensinns Of