are only different modes of existence of one and the same eternal substance. As yet this task has not been performed. When it shall be, if it ever shall, a Personal Will may be found to be the origin of all things; science, at the end of her lengthy process of induction, attaining the result which faith has long since reached, and reason is now able to sustain by unanswerable a priori arguments. We can well afford to encourage science in prosecuting her investigations with vigor, fearless of the legitimate results of careful inquiry.

Matter has not been defined, not even have its boundaries been accurately traced.

CHAPTER XIII.

MATTER; ITS ORIGIN.

IN reference to the origin of matter various opinions have prevailed and do still prevail, especially in cultured nations. Savages, it is true, seldom pause to ask whether that which exists needs to have had a beginning-it exists, they trouble themselves no further; but in every age the thoughtful have been persistently endeavoring to answer the question, Whence came matter? To the incessantly recurring inquiry, the following responses have been made:

I. Matter had no beginning. It is eternal, having always existed substantially as it now is. This is the theory of materialistic atheism.

II. Matter is an evolution from force, whose original homogeneity differentiated into heterogeneity, producing light, heat, magnetism, electricity; through these agencies, matter, in its myriad forms, came into existence, being a product of eternally-existent, omnipresent Force. The only "Eternal Reality," the only "Unconditioned Entity," the "Cause of all causes," is Force. This is the theory of physical atheism.

III. Matter is embodied thought. Thought, "the Ultimate of all ultimates," "the Source of all beginnings," impelled by an innate necessity, evolved into force, into laws, into material existences. The universe is manifested thought, coming to self-consciousness in

man.

"An Absolute Idea" is the enduring Reality. This germ has produced pantheism in its various forms.

IV. Matter is the immediate creation of a supramundane God. This is the theory of absolute creation, or creation ex nihilo, as it is denominated (inaccurately, we think). It is the opinion generally adopted by the christian church. In the Westminster Confession of Faith it is expressed in the following terms:-" It pleased God. . . . for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world and all things therein, whether visible or invisible.

V. Matter is an effluence from Deity, produced by the exercise of his own will. God formed the universe out of the fringings of his own eternal garments. This theory is adopted by a class of theologians who regard it as irrational, if not indeed inconceivable, that something should come from nothing, even in obedience to the fiat of an omnipotent God.

What is the absolute Cause of all things? Five answers have been given; Matter, Force, Thought, an Unconditioned Divine Will, a Personal God. Of these, two are atheistic; one is pantheistic; two are theistic. To their consideration we address ourselves.

I. MATTER HAD NO BEGINNING.

Materialists persist in asserting that it is as rational to affirm that matter is uncreated and eternal, as to affirm that God is an uncaused, eternal Being; that inasmuch as we have no proof that since the beginning of the present order of things a single atom has been created or has been annihilated, or indeed can be; and inasmuch as no trustworthy evidence exists that there are any realities except the protean forms of this ever-changing, infinitely plastic material substance; and inasmuch as this

dictum of science, "No matter, no force: no force, no matter," necessitates the belief that thought may be, almost certainly is, one of the attributes of matter, as much so as solidity, weight, elasticity, etc., therefore.it is most consonant with reason to assume that matter is self-existent, all-potent, eternal, the Unconditioned Cause of all causes, the Absolute Reality.

In refutation of this atheistic theory it may be said:I. To say that self-consciousness is an attribute of matter as this theory must-is to make an assertion which is not only at variance with our fundamental notions, but is nearly, or quite, inconceivable. To assume that matter can work itself into forms in which it becomes conscious of its own existence is an assumption which few are disposed to make. It requires a radical change in our conceptions. I am conscious of my own existence. I have no doubt of the existence of other self-conscious beings. I believe in the existence of objects which are devoid of self-consciousness. I see the earth on which I tread-not all of it, but enough to assure me that it is something outside of myself. I see the sun in the heavens -not in its totality, but I am confident it is something totally distinct from the subjective reality which contemplates it. I see material objects all around me-not all of them, but I am convinced that they are a part of the non-ego, the not-self. I cannot see all the matter in the universe, but I have an intuitive conviction that the reality which discerns is distinct from the objects discerned. Indeed, when one comes to a consciousness of his own existence as an entity distinguishable from all other entities, he is forced by the principle of causation to believe in the possible existence of a higher self-conscious Personality, of which he himself, all other self-conscious beings, the world, all existences, are but effects. Unconsciousness

cannot grow into consciousness; the cause which originates personality must be a person. Rationality cannot have irrationality for its father. Will cannot be the child of matter. The sensibilities cannot be the fruitage of insensibility. Freedom cannot be the blossom of inexorable necessity. An intelligence which is capable of employing fitting agencies for the accomplishment of predetermined ends cannot arise out of nescience.

Self-consciousness is a rock upon which every materialistic theory may be ground to powder. To this we shall recur in a subsequent chapter. Our present purpose is merely to outline an argument.

2. Materialism fails utterly in accounting for the sense of personal identity. If there is nothing in a human being but matter, and that, as is conceded, is in constant flux, the entire body disappearing every year as science now asserts, how does it happen that we retain the conviction of identity? It is granted, alike by theists, by pantheists, and by atheists, that the Uncreated Source of all things must be a unity, self-existent, omnipresent, eternal. It is conceded that this First Principle must contain in itself a sufficient reason for all that has occurred and for whatever now exists. It must be a perfect generalization, an absolute summum genus. It must furnish a satisfactory, at least a credible, explanation of every fact in the universe. It is the demand of reason that everything in the domain of the actual should find at least a plausible solution in that which is assumed as the Absolute Reality. Is the sense of personal identity explained, or is an explanation possible, or even conceivable, on the hypothesis that matter is the self-existent, omnipresent, eternal unity? We unhesitatingly answer, No. Still, no one will deny that there is such a thing as the sense of continued personal existence. How is this