when one day in the desert, felt hungry, saw a date-palm, went up to it expecting to find some dates on it out of season, and then cursed it to such good effect that presently the palmtree withered away, would not every pious Christian, on reading such a story, exclaim, "How like a false prophet! And how unlike Christ!"? Of course; and therefore we pay greater honour to Christ Himself in rejecting the story altogether than in trying to explain it away. Other miracles, again, present difficulties of another nature. While we may deny that walking on the water, or healing the sick by a word, or raising the dead, involves any breach of the unchangeable nature of The Absolute, we are puzzled what account to give of certain alleged occurrences which seem to hover on the very verge of the two sharply-defined spheres. Take the three miracles—one in the Old Testament and two in the New-of the multiplication of bread. Now, bread is a manufac tured article. It is made in the form of a loaf, which consists of crust and crumb-different in both colour and consistency. A loaf has a

certain shape; it bears external marks of the oven in which it was baked, and it is a little burnt, perhaps, in one corner. It is, therefore, difficult to realize the reproduction, or multiplication, or, in other words, creation out of nothing, of an object bearing all these marks of human, artificial manufacture. The same may be said of the handkerchiefs and aprons that miraculously came from' the dress or person of St. Paul, woven, I suppose, as such things are, made of linen or cotton, and bearing the marks of the loom. Who wove them, and where was the material grown?

So much by way of illustration. It is not necessary for our purpose to enter upon a fuller examination of recorded miracles, which, indeed, everyone can do for himself. The point I want to emphasize is, that the possibility of miracles may be safely admitted without involving any breach whatever of the unity of Nature, the invariability of the One Absolute, in whom and from whom and by whom are all things. The healing of disease by a word, a look, a touch, or an effort of will, is simply a striking instance of

that wonderful influence of mind upon matter which is now universally acknowledged if only partially understood. And if the influence of mind upon matter is a mystery and yet a fact, so is the influence of matter itself upon matter. What is a surer fact in the whole range of physical nature than that a pull exists between the globe on which we live and the sun; between the sun and Sirius; between all the countless suns and planets that swing in equilibrium throughout space? And what is a profounder mystery? Why do these bodies attract each other? How do they do it? What is the mechanism at work, and where shall we look for it? To these questions there is at present no reply; and yet the mystery is a fact. No truer

illustration of Miracle could be afforded than the 'law' of gravitation; for, after all, the best definition of the word itself is to be found by simply turning it into another language, and calling it a Wonder.

It only remains for us now to revert to the objection alluded to on an earlier page. Why, it may be asked, must we hypothesize an

unrealizable metaphysical entity, called 'The Absolute,' as the Ultimate Fact in Nature? Why not recognize that Ultimate Fact in the ultimate unit of matter-a thing that we know to exist, and behind which no science can possibly go? The question is a very important one, and deserves careful consideration. In the present essay we have argued deductively from The Absolute to the visible Universe. We will now attempt the inductive method, and see whether our theory of The Absolute cannot be substantiated by an appeal to physical

science

CAN GOD BE PROVED?

For the man who has eyes to see and ears to hear there are signs, numerous and unmistakable, that that tissue of misunderstandings, cross-purposes, and confused thought, called the Conflict between Religion and Science, is surely, if gradually, disappearing. Controversialists are beginning to realize the truth that extreme, unpliable views betoken weakness rather than strength, that the precise significance attaching to ascertained facts is not always recognizable at a glance, that the most highly authorized interpretations are not necessarily above revision, and that an open mind is an excellent thing in the discussion of weighty themes. Concessions have, then, been made on both sides, and it would seem that to Religion belongs the honour of