The San Francisco call., 1896-02-12

for the phenomenon. If it be said as 1t is some
times said that the stone falls because of the
law OF gravitation, this when interpreted
means that it falls because 1t falls.
Hence when the doctor was looking abroad
for the divine and pitched upon the natural
law, he made a poor choice. He might as well
have taken the rules OF syntax the multi
plication tables and set them up as divinities.
3. FORCE.
There remains then only force to which the
doctor may apply the term divine. Now when
we consider the forces with which we come in
contact we learn that each is the resultant OF
other forces The main business of natural
science is TO resolve the composite forces which
we denominate phenomena into other forces.
Each force which sends its message to our
brain is the result of a long series OF forces
which stretches away beyond our ken. One
force succeeds to another like the links of q
chain.
The intellect, therefore, comes to this series
of forces with its eternal why? The question
is put, Whence came the first of those forces,
the original impulse? 1t does not do to say
that the chain is eternal or infinite. Even
though the primal energy be one and the same
under all forms, still these forms sweep over it
in succession of waves. Succession implies
numeration and numeration contradictS
intin1ty.
Each force is caused by combination of
other forces. We can number these combina-
tions one. two, three. We may go back as far
as we please, passing the million point, the
billion point. the trillion point, but we can
never pass point where mum bers cease to be
available, and wherever numbers are available
is within the region of the limited, the finite.
If chain should hang down out of the SKY
and men should climb up q thou
sand links or two thousand or three
they would not have answered the question
from what does the chain hang by saying that
beyond the last link they reached there were
still links unnumbered. We must, if we do
justice to our reason. assume the existence of
some point of support, just as, if we do justice
TO our reason, we must suppose the existence of
some force which is uncaused by any other
force forces
A. GOD.
This first force must be at least the dynamic
equivalent of all existing, sensible forces, be-
cause the greater cannot proceed from the less.
Every pound OF force expended by the wheels
OF the clock must be contained in the main
spring.
Now this sensible force cannot be infinite or
divine, as Dr. York W ould have it. Because, if
it is infinite, then it is equaled by the first
force and we have two infinites, which is as
absurd as the claim made by your contem po-
raries that each has the largest circulation
There cannot be two infinities, and therefore
sensible or physical force must be finite.
Is the first or uncaused force finite? Has
that force which is not caused by any other
force, but exists of itself, any limits? In the
very beginning, as this force is unproduced. it
cannot be limited by a producing force. The
force exerted by steam engine is limited by
the power OF the engine, the fuel, in word
the productive agencies But the first force
being unproduced by anything cannot be linn
tied by anything. Again, as it is force which
exists by its own nature there is nothing in
that nature which would imply limitation.
Only force can limit force, and that force
which is first, supreme and alone, cannot be
limited by any other. Hence the very idea of
an uncaused, self-existing force duplicates the
idea that such force is infinite, and therefore
God.
1t is evident at once that this self-existent
force is not TO he confounded with the forces
which he created, which he set in motion
Being infinite force he must be infinite will
infinite knowledge, infinite power. In word,
he is God as the reason of man has discovered
him from the beginning through the works of
his hands and the heavens which show forth
his glory. Yours truly, p. c. YoRKE.