The herald., 1897-01-18

finite does not begin where the finite
leaves Off; nor does the absolute start
out from the point where we are power
less to see any related facts; but the in
finite and absolute is the atmosphere
in which the finite and relative lives
and moves and has its being. The infinite
Is not something wholly distinct from
men and things, but rather the soul and
life. the mighty spirit Of all. For the
infinite and Absolute is not that which
excludes or negates the finite and rela-
tive; 1t Is that which takes them up
into itself, and in whose embrace they
find their truest being; as on the other
hand, 1t realizes itself through them,
and would be unknown without them
All the universe Is a theophany. maui
festation of the one forming and inform
ing spirit. The poets get clearer views
of these things than the philosophers
and the scientists. Shelley, cropping
after God finds him in no far-off heav-
en-, but in the heart of the world. For
he sings of him thus:
The One Spirits plastic stress
Sweeps through the dull, dense world ;
compelling there
All new succession to the forms they wear;
Torturing the unwilling dross that checks
IT.. A.. its flight ,
And bursting in it's beauty andjts might
From trees and beasts and men into the
heavens light.
But the agnostic, with a philosophy
that, first of all, denies the very facts
out of which 1T is builded, and, with
which 1t works out it's ypotheses, Gre
ates his own God, and then declares him
unknowable. He says: God Is of sucn
and such nature, and incapable of do
ing thus and so; and the reason ! know
this is because 1 don't know anything
about it, and, what's more, can't! Pres
ident Schurman of Cornell thus writes:
We know man in relation to nature,
and nature in relation to man, but we
never know either truly till we know
both in relation to Cod But the ag
nostic sets up the invisible picture of a
Grand Etre, forrnless and colorless in
itself. absolutely separated from man
and from the world-blank Within and
void without-its very existence indis-
tirguishabie from its nom existence, and
bowling down before this idolatrous Gre
alton, he pours out his soul in lamenta-
tions over the incognizableness of such
mysterious and awful nonentity! Tne
truth Is that the agnostic's abstraction
Is unknown only because 1t is I'M
real, and his argument has no bear
ing upon our knowledge of God.
The Divine Being, whose vesture is ma
ture and whose image is man; the Ever
and move and have their being; the Holy
Spirit, who nourishes the world and
communes with the children of men
this living God is known precisely be-
cause he does come into relation with
his creatures; nor Is he recognized by
the intellect alone-the heart owns him
with pious and reverent affection, the
will bows before his righteous law, ami
our whole soul, yearning as it does for
the Father of Spirits, is quickened and
refreshed by his presence. This SYM
pathy of response from all sides of our
nature confirms reasons assurance that
God Is not concealed from mortal ken;
that, though the infinite depths of his
being are beyond our present vision, we
yet see through a glass darkly,' and,
while not omniscient, really know in
part Partial as it is. 1t is this vision Of
the divine which transfigures the life
of man on earth"